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Bob Vuxinic
Crossville, TN, USA
Sparrows & Cardinals
Chipping Sparrow on a tray feeder
What do your Chipping Sparrows eat? Mine only seem to eat millet.
Sorry, I meant mine seem to only eat millet.
White millet is pretty much the food of choice. This one only came up to the tray feeder because there was too much foraging competition on the ground, and I hadn’t yet refilled my millet tube feeder.
I use the “cheapest birdseed known to man” (Milo, sunflower, millet, wheat, corn) and mix it with safflower and sunflower. I also have suet, peanut butter, and mealworm suet nuggets. I get about 12 to 20 species per day. Including unlikely birds like mockingbirds, (The Peep, Magolia, and The Adversary) Yellow-rumped Warblers, Pine Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a Lincoln’s Sparrow, and others.
The problem with the “cheapest birdseed known to man” is that you are paying for lots of feed that most birds don’t eat, like red and gold millet and flax which the sellers use as filler to increase the weight. You should check out this site put out by the Cornell Lab: A quick guide to seed types:: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/types-of-bird-seed-a-quick-guide/#milo
By the way, I am not on Cornell’s staff, but they are the best source for bird info.
It has milo, millet, cracked corn, and sunflower. I mix in safflower and sunflower and get around 12 species to the feeder per day. The birds really love it. Even finches.
I buy 20 lbs for $10
I have lots of doves. My feeders are emptied every day.
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