Feeding Birds with Nutritious Food

Posted by MaryG | Added on : January 30, 2013 5:49pm | Last edited: January 31, 2013 06:00am | Viewed 2813 times | 1 Comments

Feeding Birds with Nutritious Food

To ensure sound health and long life for your birds is by feeding birds with nutritious food. Several birds die while very young due to malnutrition or diseases caused by malnutrition. It has been found that birds receiving nutritious food live much longer than birds that don’t. It goes without saying that the difference lies in their diets. Under the circumstances, it seems to be a good idea to describe the kind of wholesome food that attracts your preferred birds. Most of these items of food are in the form of seeds of various kinds.

 Sunflower Seeds: Black Sunflower Seeds are a quality feed.  Most of the birds prefer these seeds to all other sunflower variety. Feeding birds these seeds that are packed with energy is a source of exceedingly nutritious food that includes protein as well as fat. Birds such as Gold, Purple and House Finches, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Chickadees, Scrub Jays, Nuthatches, Mourning Doves, Titmice, Buntings, Grosbeaks, Juncos as also Sparrows like sunflower seeds.

Safflower Seed: This seed is rich in fat and protein and well liked by birds such as Finches, Grosbeaks, Mourning Doves, Chickadees, White-throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Cardinals, Grosbeaks, Nuthatches, Jays, as well as Titmice.

Thistle Seeds, Niger: A highly nutritious seed full of fat and protein.  Birds such as   Gold, House and Purple Finches, Siskins, Redpolls, Mourning Doves and Juncos, cherish thistle seeds.

Corn: Corn is liked by Sparrows, Blue Jays, Juncos, Mourning Doves, Black Birds, Pigeons, cowbirds, starlings as well as upcountry game birds such as Grouse, Turkeys, Pheasants and Partridge. 

Mixed Seed: Good quality mixed seed consists of many of the above mentioned seeds. Quality of this type of seed might vary. In case birds eat only certain seeds and ignore the rest, it is better to make another mix while feeding birds.

Peanuts: Feeding birds with shelled peanuts is good as they tend to be very nutritious for those birds that like them.  Blue Jays, House Finches, Scrub Jays, Cardinals, Magpies, Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Titmice, Nuthatches, White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows like peanuts very much.

Fruit: Migrating birds arriving early usually meet with shortages in their customary feeding sources and as such willingly eat fruit.  Halving apples and oranges and fixing them on a spike or nail will be good.   Feeding birds with bananas, grapes, melons, berries and raisins are also good, although grapes and raisins can be poisonous if fed in large quantities. Birds such as Catbirds, Orioles, Robins, Thrushes, Mockingbirds, Tanagers, Bluebirds, Waxwings, Kingbirds, Crows, Woodpeckers, Warblers, and Sparrows love fruits.