What happens when you give wild winter birds four seed options at once?This episode breaks down a hands-on field experiment from western Canada where sunflower seeds, millet, hemp, and peanuts were offered simultaneously to see what birds actually prefer.
Across five trials, the results were striking: sunflower seeds dominated, millet and hemp landed in the middle, and peanuts came in dead last. The bar chart on page 6 (Figure 3) shows the pattern clearly - sunflower seeds were consistently eaten the most, regardless of species present. And although the study compared nutritional traits like protein, lipids, and carbohydrates, the correlations were weak and not significant.
So what explains the birds’ choices?We explore possible drivers, from energy needs and digestibility to the presence of anti-nutritional compounds like those found in peanuts. This episode gives listeners a practical, science-backed answer to the age-old question: What should you put in your window bird feeder if you want to attract the most birds?
