There are people who choose dogs as pets, others like cats, or fish. But, birds are also among the favorites, when it comes to buying a pet. And there are children who get attached to birds and want one to take care of at home. Or, you can teach your children things about birds and, to help them learn more you can take them bird watching. Yes, I agree, that is not as funny as playing some video games or going out with friends and ride a bicycle. But it could be useful for your children and, besides the knowledge they will get on birds and the way birds live, you can spend some quality time together and teach them to love nature and to love spending time outside, playing or walking together. And if you want to make this activity even funnier and to make your kids enjoy it, you can think of making the bird seeds at home. Just imagine yourself with the children in the kitchen, explaining and making them attentive to details, teaching them what birds eat and make them curious in combining and making experiments with bird seed recipes.
Different ingredients and combinations attract different birds in the backyard or in the forest, so different combinations are welcome. If you want to see all types of birds, the most well known and famous recipe among birds is the one rich in black oil seeds, which attracts finches, mourning doves, sparrows or cardinals. Take a large container and pour 3 cups of black oil seeds, then put some nuts or shelled peanuts, all crushed, of course, and add some millet (about 2 cups). Mix all the ingredients, it is easier to do it by using your hands. Take this food and put it in the bird feeder and just stay close to watch them coming to enjoy the food. If you want to attract blue birds, you can do it with cracked corn (take about 3 cups), and add commercial bird seed mixture and a little bit of oatmeal. I wouldn’t suggest scatter this food on the ground, since you will find yourself and your yard full of pigeons, coming to eat. If you have in mind to attract large birds, the striped sunflower seeds are the best solution. Put about 3 cups of such seeds into a container and add a cup of black oil seeds and a cup of millet. Mix them all together and make sure your feeder is big enough for birds to come eat out of it.
Bird seeds come in all shape and sizes, however, not all bird seeds are created equal. What does this mean? Although a lot of people have the misconception that all birds can eat the same type of bird seeds, this is not true. Just like humans, birds eat certain seeds, some that they favor, and some that they need for nutrition. Therefore, today we will be looking at five different seeds that are commonly used in bird feeders. We will also take a brief look at the type of birds these five bird seed attract.
• Sunflower- the sunflower is the most well known bird seed. However, did you know that there are two kinds of sunflower seeds? The first and most commonly know one is the striped sunflower bird seed. The striped sunflower seed has a thick shell, while the black-oil sunflower has a very thin shell. Due to the difference of shell thickness both sunflower seeds attract different bids. For example, the black-oil sunflower attracts cardinals, chickadees, finches, and sparrows, while the striped sunflower attracts jays, grosbeaks, woodpeckers, and love birds.
• Safflower- this bird seed is a lot like the striped sunflower in shape and shell thickness, however, there is on major difference between this two bird seeds: their color. While the striped sunflower is mainly black in color, the safflower is white. Like the striped sunflower, this bird seed is a favorite among birds that have strong beaks such as jays, grosbeaks, woodpeckers, love birds, chickadees, doves, cardinals and native sparrows.
• White proso millet is a bird seed preferred by ground-eating birds; as such many bird feeders often scatter white proso millet on the floor or on low-set bird feeders. The white proso millet attracts American sparrows, doves, towhees, juncos, cardinals, cowbirds, blackbirds, and house sparrows.
• Shelled and cracked corn is often used to feed different types of birds; therefore it is also considered a bird seed. Although corn does in fact attract different types of birds there is two major problems with corn. One, corn is very easily contaminated with aflatoxins. Aflotoxins is a toxic that is very dangerous, even at low levels. Second, although corn attracts different varieties of birds it can also attract other unwanted visitors such as bears, raccoons, and deer’s. Putting aside this two problems, corn attracts many beautiful birds like grouse, pheasants, turkeys, quails, cardinals, grosbeaks, crows, ravens, jays, doves, ducks, cranes, and a few other bird species.
• Flax, red millet and golden millet are often used as “fillers”. This means that this specific bird seeds are low on nutrition and are often used on packed bird seed mixes. Due to the fact that this bird seeds are “fillers” most birds ignore them and most often than not, these seeds are just a waste of money and a breeding ground for bacteria and fungus to thrive.
Although this bird seeds are the most common among bird feeders, it does not mean that they are the only bird seeds available to the public. In the contrary, many birds are also attracted to peanuts, milo, sorghum, rapeseed, and canary seeds. Therefore it is very important that you give some consideration to the type of birds you want to attract in your outside bird feeder before you purchase any kind of bird seeds.