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Best foods for birds


Foods to Attract Birds to Your Lawn

By

Melissa Mayntz

Melissa Mayntz

Melissa Mayntz is a bird expert, certified Master Naturalist, writer, and author with over three decades of experience. She's published in several national magazines, including National Wildlife Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and WildBird Magazine. Melissa has studied hundreds of bird species around the world, traveling to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the central Pacific, the Middle East, and more on birding expeditions.

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Updated on 04/13/21

Airwolfhound / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

If you're looking to attract local birds to your lawn to help control garden pests or fulfill your birdwatching habit, consider filling their bellies. The way to a bird’s heart truly is through its stomach, and it’s exceptionally easy to attract birds with food. By understanding what birds eat and the best foods to entice them, birders can attract a wide variety of species to their backyard buffet.

What Birds Eat

Different bird species have different dietary needs and feeding preferences, so understanding what birds surround your area and what they eat is the first step toward attracting them with food. The different types of foods most birds naturally eat include insects (worms, grubs, and mosquitos), plant material (seeds, grasses, flowers), small berries or fruit, and nuts. Larger birds like hawks and vultures may also eat small animals like rodents and snakes.

The exact diet of a bird can also depend on its nutritional needs, which can vary from season to season. Offering the foods birds need most during that time of year is the best way to attract them, and watching how birds forage in the yard is a great way to learn what foods they prefer. Birders can also visit a local wild bird store for recommendations to get started feeding birds, and assistance may be available from groups such as the National Audubon Society.

Natural Foods for Birds

Providing natural food sources in your yard is an ideal way to attract birds to your property without needing to constantly refill feeders or purchase seed. Planning the best bird-friendly landscaping can be expensive, but choosing plants to provide food for birds may actually save money in the long run, as the plants will grow more food year after year with minimal care.

The most popular natural food sources for birds include:

Supplemental Bird Food

It is not always possible to provide sufficient natural food sources for birds, especially in small yards, heavily developed areas, or when landscaping projects may be too expensive. Adding bird feeders and supplemental food sources is a great way to provide more food variety for local birds and cater where they feed for the best bird watching.

The most popular way to provide supplemental food for birds is through a dedicated feeding station. There are many types of bird feeders to choose from, including hopper, tube, and platform designs, as well as specialized feeders for foods like fruit, jelly, or nectar. No special feeder is necessary, however—birds will readily accept food from a simple plate or even sprinkled on the ground. Using a variety of different feeders will attract more birds, as will using a variety of different foods. The most popular supplemental foods to offer birds include:

It is also possible to offer birds kitchen scraps such as excess fruit, vegetables, cheese, and even some types of bread or bread-like products. While birds will happily eat these scraps, it's important to remember that they often have less nutritional value than wild bird foods and thus should only be offered as rare, limited treats rather than making up the bulk of a bird’s diet.

Tips for Arranging Bird Food

Birds will readily visit your yard if food is available, but if you have difficulty attracting birds with food, there are more steps you can take to catch their attention with your dining options.

While birds will be easily attracted by food, they need more than reliable meals to consider your yard a suitable habitat. Add a water source, appropriate shelter, and nesting sites to your property to meet all of a bird’s basic survival needs, giving them no reason to leave.

What do Birds Eat? | What to Feed Wild Birds

You're always asking about what and how to feed your garden birds - such as which is the best type of food to provide or whether there's anything to avoid. Whatever food you use, always make sure it's fresh!

Bird seed mixtures

There are different mixes for feeders, for bird tables and for ground feeding. The better mixtures contain plenty of flaked maize, sunflower seeds and peanut granules.

Small seeds, such as millet, attract mostly house sparrows, dunnocks, finches, reed buntings and collared doves, while flaked maize is taken readily by blackbirds. Tits and greenfinches favour peanuts and sunflower seeds. Mixes that contain chunks or whole nuts are suitable for winter feeding only. Pinhead oatmeal is excellent for many birds. Wheat and barley grains are often included in seed mixtures, but they're really only suitable for pigeons, doves and pheasants, which feed on the ground and rapidly increase in numbers, frequently deterring the smaller species.

Warning: Avoid seed mixtures that have split peas, beans, dried rice or lentils as again only the large species can eat them dry. These are added to some cheaper seed mixes to bulk them up. Also avoid any mixture containing green or pink lumps as these are dog biscuit, which can only be eaten when soaked. 

How you can help

We stock a large range of safe, high-quality bird food that will attract a wide variety of birds to your garden.

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Other seeds and nuts

Black sunflower seeds

These are an excellent year-round food, and in many areas are even more popular than peanuts. The oil content is higher in black than striped ones, and so they are much better. Sunflower hearts (the husked kernels) are a popular no-mess food.

Nyjer seeds 

These are small and black, rich in fat and with a high oil content. They do need a special type of seed feeder however. They're a particular favourites with goldfinches and siskins and are popular with tits, greenfinches, house sparrows, nuthatches and great spotted woodpeckers too.

Peanuts

Crushed or grated nuts attract robins, dunnocks and even wrens. Nuthatches and coal tits may hoard peanuts.

Warning: Don't use salted or dry roasted peanuts. Remember, peanuts can be high in a natural toxin, which can kill birds, so always buy from a reputable dealer, such as our online shop, to guarantee freedom from aflatoxin.

Never put out loose peanuts, during spring or summer, as these pose a choking hazard if they are fed to chicks, place whole peanuts in a suitable mesh feeder.

Bird cake and food bars

Fat balls and other fat-based food bars are excellent winter food.

If they are sold in nylon mesh bags, always remove the bag before putting the fat ball out – the soft mesh can trap and injure birds.

You can make your own bird cake by:

Warning: Home-made fat balls can go soft and rancid in warm summer weather, and should be avoided.

Live foods and other insect foods

Mealworms are relished by robins and blue tits, and may attract other insect-eating birds such as pied wagtails.

Mealworms are a natural food and you can feed them to birds throughout the year. It can be quite expensive to constantly buy them, so why not try growing your own mealworms? Don't worry, you can still buy your mealworms from the professionals, consoling yourself with the thought that successful mealworm breeding is even more difficult than it sounds.

Warning: as with most foods, there can be a risk of salmonella poisoning. If you're using dried mealworms, make sure you're confident in the supplier's food hygiene practices and if uncertain, ask for their food safety certifications. Further reduce any risk by only providing small amounts that get eaten quickly and by using an appropiate mealworm feeder. You can also store dried mealworms in the fridge. Tip: Soak dried mealworms in warm water for 20-60 minutes before putting out to provide valuable moisture content and make it easier for younger birds to digest.

Waxworms are excellent, but expensive. Foods for insect-eating birds, such as ant pupae and insectivorous and softbill food are available from bird food suppliers and pet shops. Insect food appropriately offered can attract treecreepers and wrens.

Dog and cat food

Did you know meaty tinned dog and cat food are a good substitute to earthworms during the warm, dry part of the summer when worms are beyond the birds' reach? Blackbirds readily take dog food, and even feed it to their chicks.

Warning: don't use dry biscuits as birds may choke on the hard lumps. It is sometimes added to cheaper seed mixtures for bulk. Soaked dog biscuit is excellent, except in hot weather as it quickly dries out. Petfood can attract larger birds such as magpies and gulls, but also neighbourhood cats. So if this is likely to be a problem, best avoid.

Rice and cereals

Cooked rice, brown or white (without salt added) benefits all sorts of birds during severe winter weather. Pigeons, doves and pheasants may eat uncooked rice but it's less likely to attract other species.

Any dry breakfast cereal makes for useful bird food, although you need to be careful only to put out small amounts at a time. And make sure there's a supply of drinking water nearby, since it quickly turns into pulp once wet.

Uncooked porridge oats are also fine for a number of birds.

Warning: never cook porridge oats, this makes them glutinous and could harden around a bird's beak. 

Fats, margarines and oils

Lard and beef suet on their own are fine as they re-solidify after warming. And as they are pure fat, it's not as suitable for bacteria to breed on. 

Cooking fat

Warning: fat from cooking is bad for birds. The problem with cooked fat from roasting for example, is that the meat juices have blended with the fat and when set, this consistency makes it prone to smearing, not good for birds' feathers. It's a breeding ground for bacteria, so potentially bad for birds' health. Salt levels depend on what meat is used and if any salt is added during cooking.

Polyunsaturated margarines or vegetable oils

Warning: these are also unsuitable for birds. Unlike humans, birds need high levels of saturated fat, such as raw suet and lard. They need the high energy content to keep warm in the the winter weather, since their body reserves are quickly used up, particularly on cold winter nights. The soft fats can easily be smeared onto the feathers, destroying the waterproofing and insulating qualities.

Milk and coconut

Birds can digest fermented dairy products, such as cheese. Mild grated cheese can be a good way of attracting robins, wrens and dunnocks.

Warning: never give milk to any bird. A bird's gut is not designed to digest milk and it can give them serious stomach upsets or even kill them.  

Give fresh coconut only, in the shell. Rinse out any residues of the sweet coconut water from the middle of the coconut before hanging it out to stop the build-up of black mildew.

Warning: never use desiccated coconut as it may swell once inside a bird and cause death.

Rating of food for wavy parrots

To date, pet stores have a huge selection of grain mixtures, the advertisement of which promises the health and longevity of your bird. But do not believe every flashy slogan and what the manufacturers themselves claim. The choice of food must be taken responsibly, because food is the basis of the diet of budgerigars. The health of your feathered friend directly depends on the quality of the food he eats. We have collected all the information in RuNet, analyzed numerous reviews of experienced breeders and prepared for you the top 5 food for budgerigars. Let's figure it out together!


1. Fiory Pappagallini

Our top five is opened by Fiory Pappagallini, food for budgerigars of Italian origin. It is enriched with honey and vegetable granules. This is a balanced and varied bird diet with over 10 different seeds. Among them are pumpkin seeds, which budgerigars love so much, as well as very rare safflower seeds. Safflower produces rather oily seeds and is eaten in Asia. These seeds relieve constipation and also improve pigmentation.

Granules contain:
beta glucans. They are linear chains of glucose that stimulate the immune system as a whole;
organic selenium is a very important mineral. He is actively involved in the protection of cell membranes that connect cells together;
chelate minerals. They have a diverse immunostimulating effect that promotes the development of cells.

Ingredients: shelled sunflower seeds, maize, shuffler, wheat, crushed rice, barley, pumpkin seeds, buckwheat, whole oats, flax, whole and shelled peanuts.

Pros: competent composition. Many useful substances that allow you to maintain the health of the bird's body. Balanced clean food without debris and pests is packed in an inner sealed bag, thanks to which the palatability is preserved for a long time. Pleasant smell of grain.

Cons: too much flax, which birds don't eat. Little canary seed. Slightly overpriced.


2. Padovan Grandmix Cocorite

Padovan Grandmix Cocorite is in high demand among many owners and experienced parrot breeders of various breeds.

Specially formulated for a balanced diet for budgerigars. Many parrots have adapted to feeding on wheat seeds, but for budgerigars, it is too large in size, so it is difficult for birds to hold and peck at it. A mixture that contains grains of different crops is the most optimal solution for feeding birds. It is to this type of feed that Grandmix cocorite belongs.

One of the important characteristics of Padovan food is its complexity. GrandMix is ​​suitable for daily use.

Ingredients: white, yellow and red millet 70% (the main diet of small parrots), canary grain 12%, shelled oats 13%, apple, pear, biscuits. The composition of cookies includes: wheat flour, yeast, minerals, dyes, flavors, vitamins.

Pros: unique balanced composition. There is no debris and other foreign components, there is no pungent odor. The high nutritional value of the mixture can significantly save feed consumption. High-quality packaging is made of cardboard material, inside the food is placed in a plastic bag. Acceptable cost.

Cons: contains pellets that birds refuse to eat.

3. Vitakraft Menu Vital

Vitakraft Menu Vital everyday food for budgerigars is created by the oldest, most reliable and high quality German pet food company Vikraft.

The product contains all the important nutrients and minerals for the optimal condition of your parrot, as well as Vital-granules for strengthening immunity with beta-glucan.

It is recommended to feed 1-2 teaspoons per day (about 10 g) per bird.

Ingredients: 3 types of millet, shelled oats, canary seed, dried carrots, honey, eucalyptus leaves, oils, fats, yeast.

Pros: quite diverse composition: there is a mash, and small pebbles (“bird's teeth”), and green food, enriched with minerals (for example, lime sand) and vitamins. Contains honey and fish oil, which improves the color and structure of the feather of the parrot, and also increases immunity. Vegetables and eucalyptus leaves are present, which increases the nutritional value. No sugar, no colorants, no preservatives. The food is very clean, homogeneous, there is no too small millet. The birds eat it up. Convenient packaging with a zip-lock fastener protects the food from moisture and preserves the taste.

Cons: is not always available in stores.

4. Prestige Versele-Laga

Belgian food Prestige Versele-Laga is a traditional premium complete food for budgerigars and other small parrots. This high-quality mixture contains a variety of balanced ingredients, specially selected to meet the specific nutritional needs of parrots.

The manufacturer offers two products: all-natural Budgies Prestige and Budgies Prestige Premium.

Ingredients: Canary seed, yellow millet, white millet, Japanese millet, panicum yellow, hulled oats, red millet, linseed, VAM granules, oyster shells.

Pros: composition is well balanced. It includes fruit and VAM granules, amino acids, vitamins, as well as the prebiotic Florastimul, which helps to normalize the digestion of birds. Ground oyster shells will help to establish a clear functioning of the muscles of the stomach and ensure that the optimal balance of substances such as phosphorus and calcium is maintained. The food is clean, selected, without dust and debris, it smells delicious. Tight sealed packaging with a convenient zipper fastener. Nice price.

Cons: is not always on sale. There is safflower, which is large enough to feed small birds.


5. RIO

This is the most popular and best budgerigar mix on the Russian market according to many bird owners. The Russian manufacturer RIO won the trust among pet owners for a reason. A rich composition, strong packaging and a wide range of mixtures for parrots are not all the advantages of the brand.

Ingredients: yellow millet, red millet, black millet, canary seed, oatmeal, flax seed, safflower seed, oats, hemp seed, wheat, dried carrot, fennel, seaweed, calcium gluconate, probiotic.

Pros: excellent value for money. Balanced composition variety. No dyed grains, garbage, bad grains. There is Abyssinian noug - a real delicacy for parrots. There are calcium granules and seaweed, which are the best source of iodine and have a beneficial effect on the body of birds. The feed is economical: one pack of 500 g is enough for a month for two birds. It is especially relevant during the molting period, it passes faster and less noticeably. Does not cause allergies.

Cons: is addictive. A large amount of gluconate in the composition. When the pack ends, dust is noticed at the bottom. Not a very convenient packaging format, without a lock.

How to choose the best bird food? Best brands and selection rules

01/17/2019

In previous materials, we have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the correct selection of food and its quality. In this regard, many may have a logical question: how to choose the best bird food from the entire range of modern pet stores? We will tell you two ways to find really high-quality and harmless products at once.


A short introduction

As we have already said, the diet directly depends on the type of bird you live in, and if you sort through all the varieties, decorative and song birds, then the material would turn out to be simply endless, therefore, so that you do not waste a lot of time reading, we went for a little trick. The most popular birds for home keeping are undoubtedly parrots, therefore, using their example, we will highlight the highest quality food. If some other feathered friend lives in your house, then we recommend that you take a closer look at the appropriate food from the same manufacturers, since the quality bar, as a rule, the brand is at the same level for all products.

Method 1: Choose by brand

An analysis of the domestic market and consumer reviews shows that the products of the Italian companies Fiori and Padovan and the German leader in the industry, Vitakraft, perform best.

For convenience, we have identified 2 categories of food in accordance with the most popular bird species.

For budgies

The main indicator of quality for this species of birds is a large (about 70) percentage of millet content. It is usually supplemented with canary mixture and oatmeal. But nuts or seeds should not be in the composition - they are too oily and fatty for small birds and in large quantities can cause health problems.

The best foods


  1. Fiory pappaqallini is the highest quality and most importantly complete food. In addition to the obligatory grain, it includes such delicious ingredients as dill seed and honey. Parrots eating this food acquire a bright color and are distinguished by good immunity and good activity. The main drawback of the product is its price, but it is completely leveled by the realization that the pet is getting really high-quality food.
  2. Padovan Grandmix Cocorite - this food, in addition to an excellent balance of composition (required 70% millet available), is distinguished by various beneficial additives, such as natural dried fruits, biscuit pieces and components containing vitamins and minerals, such as wheat flour and yeast. The wealth of additional additives turns into both a plus and a minor minus. The first is the satiety of the feed, which makes the pack last longer, the second is the presence of granules that some parrots do not like - they remain uneaten.
  3. Vitakraft menu vital is another nutritious option. High nutritional value is achieved through the addition of selected grains and eucalyptus leaf. As in previous cases, the food will delight the pet with sweetness (there is honey and dried fruits in the composition), and the owner with benefits (the base contains fish oil and yeast - sources of vitamins). However, all these advantages are almost negated by one unexpected drawback - this kind of food for budgerigars is quite difficult to find even in pet stores, not to mention supermarket shelves.

For medium parrots

Here, millet again acts as the basis of the feed, but it is generously diluted with millet, oats, wheat and even corn, which small breeds would simply not be able to eat. Nuts are also present here - they are not harmful to larger birds.

The best food


  1. Padovan GrandMix Parrocchetti - the main advantage of this food is the composition that allows you to prevent the development of beriberi (we talked about its consequences literally in the previous article). In addition to the main components, it includes flax and sunflower seeds rich in vegetable fats, nuts, biscuit pieces and a fruit and vegetable mixture. At the same time, he actually has no shortcomings.
  2. FIORY Parrocchetti Africa is the richest food in terms of ingredients. In it you can find not only the usual components, but also millet, buckwheat, hemp seeds, corn and even raisins, which are rarer for such compositions, and this is not the whole variety. Thanks to him, even the most fastidious pet will be able to find a tidbit. The disadvantage, as with Padovan products for small parrots, is the presence of components that many birds do not want to eat.
  3. Vitakraft Menu Vital is almost a complete analogue of the food of the same name for small parrots, but with all the necessary edits, taking into account the size and needs of the bird, including obligatory nuts. In addition, the composition is rich in essential vitamins and minerals, which has a beneficial effect on the health of the pet. The disadvantage of Vitakraft products is one - poor availability in stores.


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Method 2: Checking the quality ourselves

In fact, this is not so much a separate choice, but a must-have addition to any purchase. It will also allow you to determine the types of food that should not be given to your pets right in the store.


Before buying, first of all, you should pay attention to the packaging:

If the packaging does not arouse suspicion, you can examine the composition (it should not contain artificial colors and flavors) and go to the checkout. Further testing can only be done at home.

Similarly, it is advisable to check every pack you purchase, as even the most expensive and tried-and-tested foods can be stored incorrectly in the store.

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