The experts at Bird Watcher’s Digest have compiled this informative bird food and seed list to help you attract the birds that you want to your feeders.
Quail, pheasants:
Cracked corn, millet, wheat, milo, sunflower hearts
Pigeons, doves:
Millet, cracked corn, wheat, milo, Nyjer, buckwheat, sunflower hearts
Roadrunner:
Meat scraps, hamburger, suet
Hummingbirds:
Plant nectar, small insects, sugar solution
Woodpeckers:
Suet, meat scraps, sunflower seeds and hearts, cracked corn, peanuts, fruit, sugar solution, millet, mealworms
Jays:
Peanuts, sunflower seeds and hearts, suet, meat scraps, cracked corn, safflower, mealworms, citrus, grapes/raisins
Crows, magpies, and nutcrackers:
Meat scraps, suet, cracked corn, peanuts, dog food, safflower, mealworms, sunflower seeds and hearts, citrus, grapes/raisins
Titmice, chickadees:
Peanut kernels, sunflower seeds and hearts, suet, peanut butter, mealworms
Nuthatches:
Suet, sunflower hearts and seed, peanut kernels, peanut butter, mealworms
Wrens, creepers:
Suet, peanut butter, peanut kernels, fruit, millet, mealworms, sunflower hearts and seeds
Mockingbirds, thrashers, catbirds:
Halved apple, chopped fruits, suet, nutmeats, millet, soaked raisins, currants, sunflower hearts
Robins, bluebirds, other thrushes:
Suet, mealworms, berries, chopped fruits, soaked raisins, currants, nutmeats, sunflower hearts, citrus
Kinglets:
Suet, suet mixes
Waxwings:
Berries, chopped fruits, canned peas, currants, raisins
Warblers:
Suet, fruit, sugar solution, chopped nutmeats, mealworms, sugar solution
Tanagers:
Suet, fruits, sugar solution, mealworms, grapes, raisins, citrus
Cardinals, grosbeaks, pyrrhuloxias:
Sunflower seeds and hearts, safflower, cracked corn, millet, fruit
Towhees, juncos:
Millet, sunflower, cracked corn, peanuts, nutmeats
Sparrows, buntings:
Millet, milo, sunflower hearts, black-oil sunflower seeds, cracked corn, peanuts
Blackbirds, starlings:
Cracked corn, milo, millet, wheat, suet, safflower, peanuts
Orioles:
Halved oranges, apples, berries, sugar solution, suet, suet mixes, currants, mealworms
Finches, siskins:
Nyjer, sunflower hearts, fruit, peanut kernels, suet
do birds eat rice?
Uncooked, straight-from-the-bag, the stuff that’s thrown at weddings? While it won’t hurt them, few birds recognize it as seed. House sparrows might, but few others. It is not recommended. Leftover cooked rice? Maybe, although they are probably unaccustomed to it and might not recognize it as food. Rice growing on the stalk in agricultural fields? Sure thing! Dawn Hewitt, Bird Watcher’s Digest
Having problems getting birds to come in feeding sunflower seeds, suat, peanut, and a mixed seed and thistle for the finchs its been 4 days and on one comes around..
Hi Winnie, Don’t be discouraged! It could take several weeks before the birds discover a new food source. They will find it, though. Just give it more time. Dawn Hewitt, Bird Watcher’s Digest
Thank you so much in disabled and love watching birds haven’t feed them in a couple years, trying to get them back to enjoy love finches, can you , recommend. Good mixed seed.. Ty
I don’t wish to recommend any brands of mixed seed, but look at the ingredients. Look for lots of black-oil sunflower seeds (with or without hulls), safflower, and nuts. Millet and milo are okay for ground-feeding birds, but should be a minor ingredient in a good quality seed blend. If you want finches, a good blend should be primarily Nyjer (thistle) and sunflower hearts (or sunflower chips).