My neighbor made me feel bad about my bird feeder setup

Old man across the street saw me filling my tube feeder with cheap mixed seed and told me I was basically feeding the squirrels and house sparrows, not the cardinals and finches I wanted. He showed me his black oil sunflower feeder and how the birds changed overnight, and I gotta admit he was right after watching my yard for a week. Have you ever switched your feed and seen a totally different crowd show up?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenny_hall1mo ago

Did the old man also offer to sell you a starter pack of sunflower seeds with a complimentary lecture on bird feeder etiquette? I switched to black oil sunflower last fall and suddenly my yard turned into a VIP bird club where the sparrows got kicked out and the cardinals started showing up like they owned the place. Now I just stand at the window judging the cheap mix users like some kind of bird feeder snob with a superiority complex. The mess reduction alone almost makes it worth having to listen to my neighbor's unsolicited ornithology advice every time I step outside.

gavinwells1mo ago

Mixed seed is basically junk food for birds, you get a lot of hulls and filler nobody wants. Switched to straight black oil sunflower years ago and my feeder went from a few sparrows to a whole flock of cardinals, chickadees, and nuthatches within a week. The old man did you a favor honestly, the mess on the ground gets way smaller too since the birds eat every last bit. Try adding a suet block nearby if you really want to see a different crowd, woodpeckers love that stuff and they're fun to watch. Stick with the good seed for a month and you'll never go back to that cheap mix.

grace891mo ago

My neighbor switched to straight black oil sunflower about two years ago and it was like flipping a switch. He went from picking through piles of discarded milo hulls every weekend to barely having any mess at all. The chickadees and nuthatches started showing up within days, and now we get a steady stream of them plus cardinals and even the occasional rose-breasted grosbeak during migration. I tried the no-mess sunflower hearts once, but honestly the whole seeds are fine and they seem to last longer before the squirrels clean them out. Adding a suet cage nearby really does round things out too, especially during cold snaps when the woodpeckers need that extra fat. Once you see how the birds react to the good stuff, it's hard to go back.