Easily the most widely preferred single seed for feeding birds. All testing shows that more species of birds black oil in their top choices for food at feeder stations. It is high in oil and fat and has a soft shell so that even small birds like finches can easily crack it open. If you want to keep it as simple and as economical as possible, just feed black oil and you will be happy with the birds you attract.

Years ago, safflower seed use to have a tagline on the bag “The Problem Solving Seed”. It continued favor among bird feeding enthusiast is due to what doesn’t like it as much as what does like it. While it is a favorite for Northern Cardinals, House Finches and Mourning Dove, it is the fact that squirrels, Common Grackle, European Starlings and House Sparrows absolutely hate it. I have found that chickadees, titmice and nuthatches take to it quickly. I prefer to feed it from a hopper feeder, open tray or a tube feeder with a large tray. NutraSaff (or Golden Safflower) is a newer natural hybrid of Safflower that has a higher nutritional value and a softer seed coat so more species like it.

Plan and simple, a bag of Sunflower Kernels is 100% food. Given that in a normal bag of seed with hulls, about 60% is waste, the increased price per pound is greatly offset by the amount of food per pound. For those who do not want to deal with waste, this is an outstanding choice for feeding. The preference among the three size kernels (fine, meduim or coarse) is based on how you are feeding and your target birds. The one drawback to kernels the lack of a seed coat makes them vulnerable to moisture.

When I ran nature centers for a living I had the luxury of being extra selective in the bird seed that I carried in our gift shops. When I bought this business, I vowed to stick to my biological and environment beliefs as much as possible. Probably the one exception that I had to make was the selling of Nyjer seed. Most people don’t know that it is not grown in this country so our songbirds never consumed it until the bird feeding industry introduced it many years ago. It is not thistle. It may look like the tiny seed at the end of the fluffy white seed heads we know from the wild growing thistle plant but it is completely different.

I have always loved my peanut feeder. It foils the squirrels and you get to watch the woodpeckers, titmice and nuthatches feeding for extended periods of time. The mesh design discourages less desirable birds while giving you a perfect feeding method for the clinging species. The high oil and fat content are great for birds.

Over the past few years we have really increased the number of In-shell Peanuts that we sell. I know that there are those who put them out for the squirrels (though we try not to encourage that) but I think the real increase is due to people’s increased acceptance of Blue Jays. Jays are disliked by many because they are seen as bullies. We hope that we have convinced many of our customers that jays are really important members of our avian community and in fact, are a great help in discouraging raptors like Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks in your backyard. We call them the Burglar Alarms of the Forest and the love In-shell Peanuts. You may not want to put too many out at one time for them because they are famous for burying those they do not eat.