bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "The Frugal Bird Feeder":
Dr. Jackson, The #1 birdseed is black sunflower, the #2 birdseed is safflower (80-cents per pound now), the cardinal's favorite. The nut and berry mix would be a distant third, or maybe fourth, behind cracked corn. The pros advise against any kind of mixed seed (e.g., nuts and berries), advising instead to have two or more feeders each with one type of feed. That way the birds can choose which seed they want. See:
http://www.wild-bird-watching.com/Bird_Seed.html
The only bird that consistently eats our suet is downy woodpeckers, since they prefer suet cages to feeders. We have a box feeder with a large ledge filled with safflower seeds and a large mesh feeder filled with black sunflower seeds. Most birds will avoid a suet cage if a feeder is nearby. However, they'll eat suet seeds if they fall into a dish below the cage.
It helps to have two 45-year old walnut trees just yards away to attract the woodpeckers. Even so, we only use two cakes of suet all winter. When one cake gets half eaten, we break it up for the squirrels and insert a new one in the suet cage. I just installed a dish/perch under the suet cage to catch the seeds and fat flakes.
The feeders and suet cage are most popular during the warmest hour of the day during winter, typically between 1 and 2 PM. Otherwise it's unpredictable, often whenever the sun breaks through the clouds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safflower
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/woodpeckerIDtable.htm
http://www.ebirdseed.com/safflower.html
Widely known as the cardinal's favorite food of choice, safflower...
In addition to cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, grosbeaks are also attracted to safflower seed,
Safflower popularly recommended here for WI winter birds:
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/nature/winterbird.htm
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http://www.ehow.com/how_2197856_attract-winter-birds.html
Safflower seed is unpleasant to squirrels but enjoyed by cardinals, titmice, chickadees, and downy woodpeckers.
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GJ - I have to defer to Bruce Church, who had his bird feeder complex designed and built by the Saginaw Forge and Anvil Company.
Bruce, I have a 10 pound bag of mixed seed and nuts in the garage. Should I just leave it out for the squirrels?
There may be a gap between the displays of the bird seed companies and the advice of experts. Duncraft makes every blend seem perfect for a million bird species. I wanted to list some of the birds according to their favorite foods.
My point is that the cheapest bags of wild bird seed are a waste of money. In Michigan, spills from the feeder will probably be enjoyed by wild turkeys. They were multiplying a long time ago around Midland, Michigan, because everyone seems to feed birds there.
For maximum bird enjoyment:
- Arrange the baths and feeders close to the windows viewed most often.
- Sprinkle seed on window sills outside, so birds get used to landing there for a snack.
- Keep water in the baths all winter, because birds need to bathe and to drink, especially in the coldest weather, when most water sources are frozen over.
- Allow extra shelter for birds, such as branches left on the ground, sunflower and weed stalks left in the soil all winter.
- Generously spread food in the coldest weather, especially after a sleet storm. Many birds eat from the bark of trees all winter. Sleet shuts down their food supply while demanding more energy from them to keep warm.
