• black oil sunflower seed is the closest to a universally accepted birdseed. cardinals and goldfinches love it.
• buckwheat and cracked corn attract mourning doves. avoiding cracked corn in your birdseed mix will help to minimize the population of grackles and mourning doves at your feeders.
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• quality canary seed attracts house sparrows. song sparrows have an even stronger preference for it than house sparrows.
• safflower, in our experience, may be the last birdseed you will ever buy. very few birds will eat it, but squirrels don’t like it either, which is why it is often sold as “squirrel-free.” worth thinking this one over before you buy.
• black-striped sunflower seeds are preferred by most songbirds. the smaller the seed, the better.
• thistle is the number one choice for attracting finches. goldfinches are brownish in colour this time of year but change to brilliant yellow in the spring.
• unsalted, shelled peanuts are candy for most woodpeckers and blue jays.
• quality suet —unsalted and full of nuts or meal worms—is an excellent way to attract woodpeckers to your yard.
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• upside-down suet feeders attract woodpeckers but discourage most grackles, which travel in herds like flying baboons, raiding bird feeders as they go. grackles do not like to feed upside down.
• a peanut feeder is the best way to offer shelled peanuts to birds. similarly, a finch feeder provides the best access to finch food.
• cleaning your bird feeders regularly helps to minimize disease. when birds congregate around bird feeders, there is a greater propensity for the spreading of disease.
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mark cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and tree advocate and is a member of the order of canada. his son, ben, is a fourth-generation urban gardener and a graduate of the university of guelph and dalhousie university in halifax.
follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullen4, facebook.com/markcullengardening and biweekly on global tv’s national morning show, the morning show.