Bird Seed Identification Guide

Common Varieties

• Thin-shelled black-oil sunflower seeds attract the largest variety of birds, says the Virginia Cooperative Extension website. Black-oil sunflower seeds are slimmer, smaller and, of course, blacker than the more common striped sunflower seed. Birds with larger beaks, such as blue jays and grosbeaks, can handle thicker-shelled striped sunflower seeds. Finches, redpolls and pine siskins favor fine, tiny black nyjer seeds yielded from the thistle plant grown in India and Africa, says the Wild Bird Watching website. Smooth, white safflower seeds that look a bit like puffed rice attract cardinals and buntings.

Seeds in the Wild

• Many birding enthusiasts opt for growing plants, grasses and flowers that provide abundant seeds for birds in the wild. The Christian Science Monitor says flowers such as cosmos, all varieties of sunflowers, purple coneflowers, bright-yellow black-eyed Susan and tickseed, also known as coreopsis, produce large quantities of seeds in dried flower heads.

Bird Seed Mixes

• Most inexpensive bird seed mixes contain mostly small pellet-like millet and milo, cracked corn and large, thick-shelled sunflower seeds that don't attract songbirds beloved by many birdwatchers. Millet and milo are grains, not seeds, more suitable for ground-foraging birds such as juncos and sparrows, states the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.