Feeding Birds: A Quick Guide To Seed Types

The seed that attracts the widest variety of birds, and so the mainstay for most backyard bird feeders, is sunflower. Other varieties of seed can help attract different types of birds to round out your backyard visitors. In general, mixtures that contain red millet, oats, and other “fillers” are not attractive to most birds and can lead to a lot of waste as the birds sort through the mix.

Here’s Cornell Lab's quick guide to seed types, including:

• Sunflower
• Safflower
• Nyjer or thistle
• White proso millet
• Shelled and cracked corn
• Peanuts
• Milo or sorghum
• Golden millet, red millet, flax, and others
• Rapeseed and canary seed