Here's The Right Kind Of Food To Attract More Songbirds To The Garden

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If you've been filling up your birdfeeder with a generic bird seed mix, but find that only sparrows are feasting, you might need to switch up your offerings at the bird buffet. To attract more kinds of songbirds to your garden, pick a seed that's a bird crowd pleaser: the black oil sunflower seed. These seeds appeal to a wide variety of birds, including cardinals, finches, jays, chickadees, and grosbeaks.

Sunflower seeds typically come in two types: black oil and striped. Birds tend to prefer black oil seeds because they're smaller and have a thinner shell that's easier to crack. They're dense in nutrients and high in fat, which is especially important when birds are foraging around the feeder in the winter time. It's no wonder birds love them.

While you might find black oil sunflower seeds tucked into bird seed mixes sold at many stores, these mixes often also include cheaper fillers like oats and milo, which some birds avoid. It's not uncommon to have birds pick out every sunflower seed, and dump the rest. While sunflower seeds alone, like Happy Wings' black oil sunflower wild bird food, might be more expensive than a generic mix, you might not mind paying a little more if you attract the avian visitors you want. Not being left with a big mess is a plus too. If you want to really save money on bird food, you can learn how to grow your own black oil sunflower seeds.

Birds aren't the only ones who love black oil sunflower seeds. They're a favorite of squirrels, too, so they may do all kinds of acrobatics to steal their fill. Fear not — you can squirrel-proof your bird feeder with an affordable Dollar Tree find. Baffles are often a good way to keep squirrels from climbing up bird feeder poles and reaching the seeds.

Another grievance is that seeds with shells can be added to just about any feeder, but birds may leave a mess behind as they crack them. If you grow tired of picking up discarded shells, you can use sunflower seed hearts instead. Just know that they spoil easily and avoid stacking them in a tube feeder. Moisture can collect there and grow mold or bacteria that might hurt the birds you're trying to help. Also, it's a good idea to clean out feeders every three weeks or so, just to be sure bacteria, bird droppings, or decaying seeds won't make birds sick.

Keep your bird feeder clean and stocked with black oil sunflower seeds, and you might even attract birds that can benefit your yard or garden with their friendly visits. If you find that the feeder with black oil sunflower seeds becomes overrun with sparrows or blackbirds, who crowd out cardinals, you can always try substituting striped sunflower seeds instead. Sparrows and blackbirds have a harder time with the tougher, striped shells.