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sunflower seeds (1 Viewer)

Metermaid said:
Is there any difference between feeding the white or black sunflower seed? Do they appeal to different birds ?

Do you mean the black/white stripey ones? I always use black sunflower seeds, because I read these are much better than the stripey ones - richer in oil, I think.
 
I think metermaid means sunflower hearts. sunflower hearts are black sunflower seeds minus the husk. i think its the same energy and oil content, but is easier for the birds to eat - and less messy.
 
tp20uk said:
I think metermaid means sunflower hearts. sunflower hearts are black sunflower seeds minus the husk. i think its the same energy and oil content, but is easier for the birds to eat - and less messy.

Right - I must say I was a bit puzzled. Hearts are very popular here - I can buy them in a 25kg sack from an animal foods wholesaler quite near here, at a very reasonable price. It's just as well, because I have to fill two 14" tube feeders every two days - and I mean fill, not just top them up. They go down a lot more quickly than the black sunflower seed feeders - surprise, surprise!!!

I sometimes have doubts about these husk free, no mess foods that you can buy nowadays - surely it's good for the birds to use their beaks - could we be encouraging a race of whimps???
 
Thats a good point elizabeth. i normally only use black sunflower seed, but recently bought some cheap hearts. then i got some (extremely) expensive high energy no mess seed from the rspb. i filled up a 14'' tube the day before yesterday. now little more than half full! greenfinches love it, but all other birds either ignore it or get one seed and fly off!
 
I've just been filling the two hearts feeders, and suddenly thought of weighing one to see how much I'm using - 560gm for one feeder. The other is a different design (much better, and more expensive) but has the same diameter as far as I can tell. So since I fill two every two days, they're munching through over half a kilogramme a day!!! :eek!:
 
half a kilo!! wow! for some reason my birds are completely ignoring everything but the high energy no mess! and strangely the fat balls and peanut cake are being virtually left alone. i think the bad weather - no harvesting is partly to do with it. many birds are feasting in fields!
 
tp20uk said:
half a kilo!! wow! for some reason my birds are completely ignoring everything but the high energy no mess! and strangely the fat balls and peanut cake are being virtually left alone. i think the bad weather - no harvesting is partly to do with it. many birds are feasting in fields!

It's just as well I found this new supplier - £18.30 for 25 kg, the pet shop was charging £2 per kilo!! I only have one suet cake feeder in use now, right by the study window, fairly well hidden in a Pyracantha. When I had one down at the bottom of the back garden, it only lasted about half a day, after the starlings discovered it. I supply plenty of other food for them, so they'll have to go without this luxury.
 
I read that the black sunflowers have slightly softer husks than the stripey ones, and are easier for the birds to crack. The striped ones are better suited to parrot-type beaks, not the pointed finch sort our wild birds have.
 
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