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peanuts or sunflowers seeds (1 Viewer)

peanuts or sunflower seeds

  • peanuts

    Votes: 88 14.9%

  • sunflower seeds

    Votes: 502 85.2%
  • Total voters
    589
Black oil sunflower seeds are the way to go for me, as I get a lot of birds on them. However, peanuts and suet are good too. Suet is a woodpecker and Carolina Wren magnet, and juncos, chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers and Blue Jays all take my peanuts. If I put 15-20 peanuts out, they are usually gone by mid-morning as the jays really like them. I also serve nyjer, but that is not nearly as popular. I don't give millet or cracked corn for fear that I will get overrun with House Sparrows.
 
In my backyard, peanuts-in-the-shell disappear as quickly as I can put them out. The resident flock of scrub-jays is the culprit, caching the peanuts wherever it can find hiding places--loose earth, leaf litter, snow. None of the other birds show much interest in them. Sunflower seeds last longer, eaten on the spot by the House & Cassin's Finches or carried off for caching by Mountain Chickadees and (after the peanuts have run out though never with the same passion) by scrub-jays. The chickadees carry the seeds off one by one, the jays several at a time in their sub-lingual pouches.
 
We do not use Black Oil Sunflower Seed as before, having switched to Safflower due to someone's comment that the House Sparrows do not care for it much. It does seem to be attended mostly by other species, and only the occasional House sparrow.

On a different topic, we have our feeders squirrel proof, not wanting them to take the bird seed. But we picked up a few acorns, setting them out for the squirrels. The little rodents provide us with entertainment in their deceptive burying of the acorns. We saw a documentary on the deceptive practices of certain animals, and true to form, he makes a big display of "burying" the food out in plain sight, then goes under some bushes for the real storage.
 
Hi
we are now using de-hulled sunflower seeds

we live outside a town in western France
surrounded by farms and market gardens

we have
tits
blue, great, crested, marsh, willow
nuthatches
finches
green, chaffinch, gold, brambling

and around the base
sparrows -house, tree

have fun
 
I only use Sunflower hearts in my feeders, I have tried everything but these are the ones that most of the birds like.
 
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