If you want to target specific birds with your feeders, you need to make sure you are giving them the foods that they like.  By paying attention to what bird foods you put into your feeder, you can attract your favorite birds and (hopefully) keep away those you don’t like as well.  So what kinds of seed are there and what birds like them?

 

Striped Sunflower

This is a hard-shelled sunflower seed that is black with white stripes.  It’s a little harder to open, so most birds won’t be as attracted to it as other seeds. 

Birds: Grosbeaks, jays, cardinals, house finches, goldfinches, nuthatches, titmice, chickadees

 Hulled Sunflower Seed

These sunflower seeds have had the hulls removed.  These have the benefit of not having a pile of hulls collect on the ground under your feeder, and the birds don’t have to open the seeds.

Birds: Grosbeaks, jays, cardinals, house finches, goldfinches, nuthatches, titmice, chickadees and also woodpeckers, mockingbirds, and wrens.

 

Millet

This is a very small seed that is almost perfectly round.  You probably recognize it from combination bird seeds.

Birds: bobwhites, quail, buntings, juncos, sparrows, doves, and cardinals

 Safflower

A white coating covers this large seed.  It is not liked very well by starlings, grackles, and house sparrows.

Birds: chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, goldfinches, house finches, jays, grosbeaks, and seems to be a favorite of cardinals.

 Cracked Corn

This one is exactly what it sounds like: dried kernels of corn that has been cracked into smaller pieces.  Again, probably familiar to you from it’s inclusion in standard bird seed mixes.

Birds: quail, doves, pheasants, sparrows, jays, grackles, blackbirds, towhees

 

Thistle Seed

A small black seed imported from India or Ethiopia.

Birds: house finches, purple finches, pine siskins, redpolls, and especially goldfinches

 

Black Oil Sunflower

Your basic sunflower – this is one most people think of when they hear sunflower.  You can tell these seeds by their all-black coloring.

Birds: most species, including jays, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches, house finches and grosbeaks

Nuts

There are of course lots of choices for nuts, but peanuts are the usual offering.

Birds: house finches, jays, grosbeaks, cardinals, goldfinches, nuthatches, titmice, woodpeckers, mockingbirds, and chickadees.