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My dad told me to stop feeding the cardinals sunflower hearts in July
He said they'd get lazy and stop foraging for natural seeds. I ignored him for three weeks straight last summer and sure enough my whole flock got super picky. They wouldn't touch the mixed seed I put out until I switched back to black oil sunflower. Has anyone else noticed birds getting spoiled by certain foods?
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vera51414d ago
Oh gosh I read somewhere that blue jays will literally spit out peanuts if they're not the right brand!
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vera51414d ago
ugh literally my birds did the same thing with shelled sunflower seeds. did you try just mixing the hearts in with the regular seed so they have to actually work for a bit?
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daniel_martin13d ago
...and that's exactly what I saw with my own birds too. The shelled sunflower hearts are like candy to them, way too easy. Once they get used to that soft texture, they'll literally pick through a whole tray of mixed seed just to find the hearts and leave everything else behind. Your dad's point about them getting lazy is actually spot on in my experience - I had a flock of chickadees that wouldn't touch suet for two weeks after I stopped the hearts cold turkey. Mixing the hearts in with black oil sunflower is a solid middle ground, but even then I noticed mine would still try to fish out the hearts first before cracking anything with a shell. Blue jays are something else entirely though - I've seen mine reject store brand peanuts and hold out for the fancy ones from the specialty shop. It's funny how fast they learn what's worth the effort and what's not.
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