The most popular question for bird feeders: What is the best seed for the birds?

Honestly, to some extend it depends on what types of birds you want to attract and what types of birds are surrounding your area (which means it depends on the seasons too). However, we highly recommend black oil sunflower seed because this type of seed provides the rich protein and fatty nutrition that attract most of the birds like chickadees, finches, cardinals, and sparrows. Additionally, it is inexpensive and easy to be found everywhere including any local pet stores.
Next, you can also try sunflower hearts that give birds the meat without the shell. This save their effort of removing the shell and will keep the feeder from mess.
If your backyard’s birds are mostly cardinals, you can try safflower seed, which is their favorite, but some of the other birds like house sparrows and European Starlings may not like it.
Another recommendation is Chia seeds. Chia is proven as one of the best ingredients to be mixed with your other seeds. It is packed with omega-3 fatty acids, carbohydrates, protein, antioxidants, calcium and fiber. It helps the birds grow and stay hydrated from the hot summer or drought winter!
Last, but not least, we would like to emphasize that the inexpensive mixture are always the worst choice, not only because it contains red millet, oats and other filters that most birds don’t prefer, but also some of the ingredients like corns and oats can harm the birds if they have residues left on the feeder after a few days. If you happen to find any good mixture, please make sure at least 50% is black oil sunflower seeds and make sure to clean the feeder every couple days.