Using No-Waste Bird Seed

Just about every type of bird seed is something that has to be opened: sunflower seeds, peanuts, even thistle seeds (nyjer seeds) have shells. Birds typically remove the inner meat while sitting at the feeder and drop the shells right there. As you can see by this photo of our backyard, this leaves behind a big mess.

True, the shells are biodegradable and decompose fairly quickly, but they stay around long enough to kill the grass in a big circle and also to be an attraction for squirrels:

To prevent this mess from occuring, it’s best to fill your feeders with something that doesn’t have shells. You can use cracked corn, for instance. You’ll still get debris below the feeder, but this will be eaten pretty quickly by the ground-feeding birds such as mourning doves and juncos.

Another suggestion is to purchase a special no-waste blend of bird seed. Duncraft makes a Super No-Waste Bird Seed. It contains sunflower hearts, cracked corn, peanut bits, and hull-free nyjer seed. It costs a little more than regular bird seed, but it’s worth it.