Bird feeding and bird watching is big business in the United States. Three million households buy wild birdseed during the year. The annual market is $6.3 billion – that’s billion with a “B”.
Bird watching, in fact, is second only to gardening as the nation’s most popular outdoor activity.
I spend my share on my fine-feathered friends. They’re fun to watch and I enjoy having them around, but I like to get as much bang for my bird feeding bucks as possible.
The best value I’ve found in birdseed is the Supreme Blend Wild Bird Feed from Sam’s Club. Costco probably has the same thing in their own brand and Pennington; the top name in birdseed, likely makes it.
The Member’s Mark Supreme Blend comes in a 40-pound bag, a little awkward to haul around, but at $19.98, it’s easily the best value on the market. This is quality seed with no filler.
Milo, or sorghum, is that small brown seed you always find in economy bags of birdseed. It is inexpensive, but most birds don’t eat it. It’s just filler to make the bags heavier and appear to be more economical.
The Supreme Blend is a premium mix of sunflower seeds, white millet, safflower seeds, peanuts, sunflower chips and raisins, a combination popular with cardinals, black-capped chickadees, finches, nuthatches, titmice, buntings and more. There is something there for every bird in your yard.
Another good buy in the backyard critter-watching market is a 40-pound bag of deer corn. It is actually illegal in Virginia to feed corn to deer during the hunting season because the biologists think too many deer would gather, which would increase the probability of spreading diseases. But you can feed corn to other critters, like crows and squirrels. Most bird food retail outlets sell a mixed bag of sunflower seeds and whole kernel corn, but it’s like ten bucks for a 10-pound bag. Wal-Mart sells a 40-pound bag of deer corn for just $5.99. I toss out a scoop full of this corn every morning in the back yard to keep the crows around, so they’ll make a hawk’s life more difficult if he flies into my air space. Squirrels will also eat the corn if there are no more sunflower seeds lying around. Doves occasionally eat the corn as well.
So if you want to feed your birds and critters well while stretching your birdseed budget, buy the deer corn and the Premium Blend Wild Bird Food. Add a bag of sunflower hearts in the mix and all the birds will thank for it.