I agree that buying quality seed is essential in every way. Many years ago in my salad days, I decided I wanted to feed the wild birds and purchased a huge bag of mixed seed at Walmart. None of the birds touched it. I felt like a total failure and never bought any more again. Then, years later, I stopped in at a local wild bird store, and I was telling this story to people working there. They told me that the seed I purchased was poor quality and had been stored in silos for 5-7 years. No wonder the birds did not want it! They knew it held no nutritional value. The seed I purchased at the local store was gobbled up. Lesson learnt. Now, I did find out that in an emergency, the birds will eat that awful old seed, but they have to be in dire straits. For example, the Winter of 2020 (and again in 2021) was one of the worst Winters we had in decades. I think a lot of wild birds perished that Winter. I heard about the storm that was coming, so I drove to the wild bird store to buy seed. I had not been there in a long time. To my chagrin, they had closed down, and there was no other store for at last 20-25 miles away. I had no way to get to one of the other stores, so I ordered BOS on Amazon. The freezing cold snow and ice hit, and I nervously awaited delivery of the seed, but FedEx lost the package. I ended up having to place another order, but by the time it arrived days later, the worst of the snow and ice was melting. It was then that someone at a wild bird store told me that in those sorts of circumstances, the birds are desperate. They are literally staving, so they would eat that awful seed from Walmart. I will always keep that in mind should we ever have that sort of record breaking cold again. I would buy the awful seed again in those sorts of circumstances, but only in those sorts of circumstances.

Great advice!! I LOVE using the seed blocks. Not only are they great to help prevent seed tossing BUT they are also GREAT as there is never a bird feeder to clean!!!

I bought quality seed, but it's become a feeding frenzy every day. I got a 50 lbs. bag of the cheap stuff, and they go through it in two and a half weeks. I have to keep buying more. If I run out, they sit on the trays looking around wondering where their food is. I love them and happy to feed them, but they are getting expensive.

Great explanation as I've wondered why the birds in my area do this too. Mostly Chickadees and Nuthatches that I see doing seed tossing. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you so much, Mark 😊 God bless you and yours!

Just found this channel. You guys are fantastic! Thanks for the info - wish I lived close enough here in GA to visit and be a patron for your shop. . . Maybe I will look if you ship seed mixes / components?

Thanks for the vid, but long ago I started feeding sunflower hearts only (and meal worms in open feeder) and haven't had a problem with wastage until a recent flock of Siskins arrived ! Whilst I am delighted (never even seen a Siskin before) and whilst they appear to love the sunflower seeds, they still throw half of them on the ground and now I have a rat nesting right under my feeders ! I was really hoping for some kind of hack or gadget in your video, but don't wish to sound ungrateful and realise there simply isn't one, apart from the good advice you gave. I have tried 'confiscating' the hanging feeders in the hopes they will clean up their mess, but none of the sunflower fans much like to spend long on the ground. I am going to try putting a sweepable surface under the feeders, so at least I can remove some of the waste (it is also costing me a fortune !) in the evenings. Unfortunately, the birds rise early and so does the rat. Its not daft !

Buy just hearts and there's no mess left from the shells.I go for seperate seeds I never buy mixed not even quality.It's a lot cheaper to buy in bulk and by putting out separately you'll soon see what your birds prefer,then you can mix them if you want but i'd still buy separately.Also not all birds feed on a hanging feeder some like Blackbirds and Robins are surface feeders and alwyas have fresh water.I buy suet,calci and mealworms etc.. all separately and in bulk.I find suet goes down much better than fat balls I have gut feeling it's because suet is softer and easier for them to break down.If I put fat balls in a hanging feeder they hardly touch it but break them down and put in a dish and they'll take it.Also peanuts should be in a small hole hanging feeder so they can't be swollowed whole.

Why do you have Des Moines Feed Company sign but your store is in Kansas City?

Your channel is so awesome thank you. I was given bird seed from a non birder as a present but it contains a lot of not so good seed, bug I don’t want to waste it, do you have any ideas?

Mark, Good info. I see you are in DSM. I travel there yearly to see friends. I will be in town next month. I might like to stop by and chat. I live in FL just north of West Palm Beach. I have a lot of seed tossing of the sunflower seeds mostly. Anyway Im considering making my own blend but have never seen a place that sells seeds in my area. I rely on my local big box store. The birds do live it and we have an active feeder with a decent number of species stopping by. Thank you

Very helpful. Thank you so much!!! I will stick with using different feeders for now-but I had a question. There is ONE seed mix that I adore-it is called “cardinal mix” by 3-D pets I think. So many birds love it-but yes there is more seed scatter with it compared to if I just use straight safflower or straight black oil sunflower. The reason why I think I’m biased towards it though is because the listed ingredients show vitamin A, and a slew of what appear to be other very helpful vitamins for the birds. However-For cardinals, house finches, goldfinches, chickadees, and titmice (the only ones that really visit that feeder with the mix), how critical are those added vitamins and is this something you recommend doing away with one I’m done with the bag-or is it worth it for them? I have multiple seed catchers and I still can’t catch all the shells sometimes (that goes for all my feeders tho-but every little bit helps, especially to prevent mice). Let me know if you think I’m overdoing it and don’t need to put out the mix. Thank you!

I got a question is there any difference between the nyjer/thistle seed or are they the same thing? It’s making me crazy. They seem to go after the nyjer bag seeds more then the tub which has the thistle in.

Hello, I have notice at my feeding station that putting one type of seed in different feeders works best for me and I also use quality seed. Also at my feeders the birds don’t like the seed cylinder much I wished they did the last one I had out went bad. I might try it again because I really like them for winter cause I hate cold and the quickest I can get back in the better. Thanks for video it was informative.

We have zebra finches inside and they throw so much seed on the ground I have to vacuum basically every day, any suggestions for finches to limit this ?

Does the pectin help the seed blocks be less likely to spoil in rainy weather?

Where can I find a list of favorite feeds per bird species?

Mark, we had a mix of safflower and sunflowers meats and found the house sparrows would throw the safflower. To try to fix this we got pure safflower a few days ago and the now the throwing of seed is worse than ever. I read another review of pure safflower from someone is MA who had the same problem. For whatever reason the pure safflower is attracting way more house sparrows and they are literally sitting out there all day now. The house sparrow aren't just looking for the sunflower meats as they are eating the safflower like crazy. We still get finches and cardinals. We also feed pure black oil sunflower in another feeder and don't have a the same problem. What is going on?

I jusk asked a local bird store owner regarding using seed sticks and they told me that my finches would not get a complete diet with seedsticks that they are mainly used for snacks. Are seed blocks different that seed sticks?

The birds in my backyard didn’t like the blocks.

what bird is in the thumbnail here?

Is there a way to stop birds from dropping safflower and Blake oil sunflower seeds?

Why don't you actually give us a real correct solution 😢

You wont believe man I spent so much on seeds and these ungrateful birds flap there wings around in it like if they are bathing... I was sooo angry...