Wild Bird Food & Products

Significance

• Bird seed consists of whole and broken pieces of shelled or unshelled seeds. To attract a wider variety of birds, more than one seed variety will be combined into one bag with other seeds. You may also buy bags of one particular seed to attract a specific type of bird to your feeders.

Considerations

• Suet is another favorite product for wild birds, because it helps to provide fat and energy that insect-eating birds miss during the winter. Suet is made from processed cow and sheep fats. Other ingredients to encourage healthy birds include ground eggshells, which female birds require during nesting season to produce strong eggs; and grit, which helps birds easily digest their food.

Features

• Bird feeders help to keep food products fresher for a longer period, while also making the products safely accessible to birds. However, before you buy any bird feeder, you need to consider which types of food you will place in the feeder. Tube feeders made from a cylinder of metal screen work best for small seeds such as thistle or nyjer. Gravity feeders with bottom cups or trays allow the use of larger seeds such as peanut pieces and shelled sunflower seeds. Suet cages made of metal include large holes birds can easily reach into to access the suet cakes. During the summer, hummingbirds will enjoy nectar feeders filled with sugar and water solutions.