Is It OK to Feed Wild Birds?
Find out what to feed birds in your backyard or garden. Our handy wild bird food chart lists the types of seeds, nuts, and other foods that are liked most by different types of wild birds so that you can enjoy visits from many feathered friends!
Is It Good or Bad to Feed the Birds?
When it comes to general backyard birds, it’s fine to offer these supplements. During times of extreme weather, studies show that extra bird food can provide a nutritional boost and provide a helping hand.
That said, the best way to feed the birds is to create a bird-friendly habitat with natural food; this means native trees and shrubs.
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Beyond the natural habitat, it’s important to:
- Feed safe, appropriate food for birds. See our chart below. NEVER feed bread which not only provides little nutrition but also may cause an unhealthy condition referred to as “angel wing.”
- Clean bird feeders. Owning a bird feeder is a responsibility. Properly clean to avoid the spread of viruses and parasites.
- Do not feed birds if it significantly changes their behavior (for example, aggressive birds such as seagulls, endangered birds such as snow owls, etc.).
Your reward is the opportunity to attract some feathered friends to your backyard and garden—and enjoy watching wild birds from your window!
What little food that is available can get buried under deep snow. The bird feeder that you place in your backyard aides the survival of birds in harsh winters.
Wild Bird Food Preferences
For most wild birds, seeds are the best source of high energy food for wild birds. (Do not feed birds bread.)
The seed that attracts the widest variety of birds, and so the mainstay for most backyard bird feeders, is sunflower.
Other varieties of seed can help attract different types of birds to round out your backyard visitors. In general, mixtures that contain red millet, oats, and other “fillers” are not attractive to most birds and can lead to a lot of waste as the birds sort through the mix.
Click here for a larger PDF of the below Wild Bird Food Chart.
Sunflower Seeds
When it comes to sunflower seeds, note that there are two kinds of sunflower—black oil and striped. The black oil seeds (“oilers”) have very thin shells, easy for virtually all seed-eating birds to crack open, and the kernels within have a high fat content, extremely valuable for most winter birds. Striped sunflower seeds have a thicker shell, much harder for House Sparrows and blackbirds to crack open. So if you’re inundated with species you’d rather not subsidize at your black oil sunflower, before you do anything else, try switching to striped sunflower.
People living in apartments or who have trouble raking up seed shells under their feeders often offer shelled sunflower. Many birds love this, as of course do squirrels, and it’s expensive. Without the protection of the shell, sunflower hearts and chips quickly spoil, and can harbor dangerous bacteria, so it’s important to offer no more than can be eaten in a day or two.
Sunflower is very attractive to squirrels, a problem for people who don’t wish to subsidize them. Some kinds of squirrel baffles, and some specialized feeders, are fairly good at excluding them. Sunflower in the shell can be offered in a wide variety of feeders, including trays, tube feeders, hoppers, and acrylic window feeders. Sunflower hearts and chips shouldn’t be offered in tube feeders where moisture can collect.
Suet Cake
Birds love a simple suet cake, especially chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and bug-eating birds. Note that a lot commercial suet cakes have too much filler (oatmeal, cornmeal, millet) and very little of the peanuts and high-quality ingredients that birds actually need when temperatures become severe. See how to make suet here. Even better is straight suet though it’s expensive. You can generally get chunks of suet at the butcher’s or supermarket.
Read more about gardening for the birds.
Learn about choosing the right bird feeders.
See our video demonstrating how to feed the birds in winter.
Catherine Boeckmann
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I'm new at this but my first question is for advice on NOT attracting so many sparrows and wrens? Thanks!
Hi Rosalie,
The first thing you will want to do is to stop providing food sources that your unwanted guests enjoy. You can try switching from feed that includes things like cracked corn, wheat, oats, and millet, and using one that has nyjer seed. Suet without embedded seeds is also an option. You can try implementing a halo on top of your feeders. If that does not work, you can try taking in your feeders for a period of time to see if those populations will move on from your yard, but it might also cause bird species you do want around to move on as well.
I've been having a Downy Woodpecker coming to my feeder to get black oil sunflowers. So, some woodpeckers will eat them.
I have a piece of suet eye level with my kitchen chair with 3 "squirrel proof" (yeah right) feeders filled with black oil sunflower seeds also in sight line. I have downy, hairy and an occasional pileated woodpecker eating from the feeders daily.
Bought a huge bag of black oil sunflower seeds for feeding birds all-year-round.
Just wondering if I can use the same seeds to grow sunflowers as I am located in Ontario, Canada. Some said they won't grow into sunflowers as they are processed. Just want to verify as it'll be so great if it can.
Anyone knows?
Yes, the black oil sunflower seeds that you purchase for birds will grow into a nice sunflower plant. I live in Ontario also and grow them every year. Not all of the sunflowers that you grow from the bird seed will produce seeds but they still look beautiful.
Birdseed is generally untreated and raw, so you should have success growing the sunflower seeds. However, the germination rate and quality of the sunflowers is unknown, so you could end up with only a few straggly flowers. Think of it as an experiment!
I must have some picky eaters at my feeders. I tried safflower seed and none of the birds would eat it! No one eats millet either, so I don't buy mixes that contain millet. My blue jays love whole peanuts, suet nuggets and black oil sunflower seeds. I keep my suet cake feeders full for the Downeys and red bellied woodpeckers. The smaller birds; nuthatches, chickadees, junkos, and finches all love the black oil sunflowers. Cardinals come just before sunset and eat sunflower seed that I spread on the ground for them. I love watching the birds!
WHICH BIRD FEEDERS ARE WILD TURKEYS NOT INTERESTED IN. I HAVE SPENT AN AWFUL LOT OF MONEY BUT THREY JUMP ON TOP OF THE FEEDER AND JUMPP OFF SHAKING POUNDS OF SEED TO THE GROUND TO E.AT AND CLAW MY LAWN SO i HAVE TO LAY NEW SOD EACH YEAR
Your wild bird list omitted wild parrots. We have wild parrots in South Florida and I've always wondered what to put out for them.
