Seed ID From Birdfood

[Nyboy]

The goldfinch feeder is a bust, not 1 bird yet. I put up another feeder fill with seed marked songbird. That feeder is getting a lot of birds. I notice there is one seed the birds are not eating. I know bad photo but can anyone ID seed?

 

[Just-Moxie]

The bag of seed should identify the contents. From there, you can search each seed name.

 

[Carol Dee]

I think it is Millet
I usually buy seed that has less or none. you are right the birds don't care for it if they can have black oil sunflower seed, safflower, peanut (meats) I usually buy bags of black oil sunflower, no waste. (Except for the hulls all over the ground!)

 

[Nyboy]

When I opened bag I threw away

 

[Pulsegleaner]

It's proso millet ( unlike most terms, "millet" actually covers a LOT of cultivated grasses)

I think birds don't like it because, unlike say wheat or cracked corn there's all that hull still around it (there's hull around a sunflower or thistle seed too, but since those are oily, there more worth the effort to. though there are limits even there (if being oily was all that was needed to get a bird to eat a seed, I wouldn't have to worry about roughing out any stay Xanthium seeds that show up in the birdseed before they take root.)

One other warning, because birds don't like it much and a lot will wind up on the ground, you can easily get a lot of it actually sprouting and making a lot of tall tough very hard to deal with grass (proso millet is technically a kind of panic grass)

The one upshot (relatively) is that while goldfinches hate proso, most fowls love it. so you are likely to wind up with a LOT of mourning doves (or since you are in White Plains and semi urban, a lot of pigeons) Ducks are supposed to go for it too (as will turkeys pheasants etc.) so if there is a pond near you that could be a good way to get rid of the leftovers.

 

[catjac1975]

It may just take time for the finches to find the feeder.

 

[Just-Moxie]

Just scoop it out and save it for the cold hard winter. Mix with some suet and some peanut butter...voila!....the birds will love it!!

 

[thistlebloom]

I agree with Carol Dee about feeding BOSS. I used to feed safflower and niger also, but when the bird bill started equaling my grocery bill I cut back to one seed that most birds like, and eat without waste. I get doves also that eat under the feeders, so I assume they are eating BOSS that drops.

Give the finches more time. They'll show up.

 

[digitS']

The big veggie garden has become a center for local Goldfinches but I don't feed them.

The attraction must be the sunflowers and yet, the finches are there long before there are seeds.

I used to see many House Finches but not recently, at all. What is likely to make a difference is the bed of foxtail millet that I have sometimes grown. It isn't for the birds, altho you can buy foxtail millet as a "spray millet" for caged birds. I was growing it for dry arrangements and would compete with the finches who would harvest my entire crop if it matured to their liking.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I used to grow sunflowers in the garden and had a lot of goldfinches around. But I never got any sunflower seeds for myself so I quit growing them, I use the space for something else. Haven't seen as many goldfinches around since I quit growing sunflowers.