Choosing the right seed for hanging feeders

Match the seed to the feeder and the birds

A hanging feeder is a small, fixed piece of real estate. Whatever you put in it has to pass through a port the size of a fingernail, be worth a bird's time, and survive a fortnight of British weather without turning into a soggy lump. Get the seed right and the feeder will be busy from first light; get it wrong and you will be sweeping sprouted grain off the patio while the tits ignore you entirely.

The reassuring news is that the choice really comes down to two or three seeds that work brilliantly, plus a long list of cheap mixes that do not. Here is how to tell them apart.

Sunflower hearts: the reliable all-rounder

Sunflower hearts are black sunflower seeds with the husk taken off, and they are the single best thing you can hang in a garden. There is no shell to crack, so even small birds can take a whole seed in one go, and the energy content is high enough to see a blue tit through a frosty night.

Expect blue tits, great tits, coal tits and long-tailed tits, greenfinches and chaffinches, goldfinches, house sparrows and the occasional nuthatch or great spotted woodpecker. Because nothing is discarded, there is very little debris beneath the feeder, which keeps the lawn tidy and the rats uninterested.

Whole black sunflower seeds are cheaper by weight and keep longer, but the husks litter the ground, can germinate, and take the birds longer to open. If you want a clean hanging feeder, hearts are worth the extra.

The one drawback is that hearts are oily. Buy what you will use in a month or six weeks, store them somewhere cool, dark and airtight, and throw them away if they smell like old paint or clump together in the bag. Clumping means damp, and damp seed goes mouldy.

Nyjer: small seed, specialist feeder

Nyjer is a tiny, fine, very oily seed and it is the most reliable way to bring goldfinches into a small garden. Siskins and lesser redpolls will take it too, often arriving in mixed flocks in late winter.

It needs its own feeder. Nyjer is fine enough to pour straight out of an ordinary tube port, so use a dedicated nyjer feeder with narrow openings, or a mesh sock that the birds cling to and pick through. A standard seed feeder will simply empty itself onto the grass.

Nyjer also goes stale faster than most seed. Buy small quantities, use them within a few weeks, and half-fill the feeder rather than topping up a big tube that sits there for a month. Stale nyjer is the classic reason goldfinches visit once, look unimpressed, and never return. Never mix it with other seed in the same feeder: the finer grains sift to the bottom, and the birds flick the larger ones out onto the ground to get at it.

Why loose mixes cause trouble

Most budget mixes are bulked out with wheat, barley, split peas, red dari and dyed kibbled maize. These are cheap by weight and most garden birds will not eat them. The consequences are predictable:

• Fine dust and small grains fall through the ports and clog the feed holes, so the mechanism jams and seed stops flowing.
• Wheat and barley end up on the ground, where they sprout within days in mild, wet weather.
• Damp mix cakes and moulds inside the tube, and mouldy seed can make birds genuinely ill.
• Spilled grain and husks attract rats, mice, pigeons and squirrels, and keep them coming back.
• You are paying by weight for filler rather than food.

If you do want a mix, look for a no-mess or no-grow blend built on hearts, chopped nuts and suet pellets. It costs more per kilo and is cheaper per bird fed.

Getting the feeder and the port size right

• Hearts: almost any tube feeder works, but check the ports. Ones that are too wide spill seed every time a bird lands.
• Nyjer: a dedicated fine-port feeder or mesh sock, hung where the birds have a clear approach.
• Mixes and tray feeders: fine for sparrows and finches, but fit a seed tray or catcher underneath and empty it weekly.
• Peanuts: a separate mesh feeder, never a seed tube. Avoid whole peanuts entirely during the breeding season, when they can be dangerous to nestlings.

Keeping seed fresh and feeders clean

Clean your feeders every couple of weeks with hot soapy water and a bottle brush, rinse them well and let them dry completely before refilling. Rotate two feeders so one is always resting and drying. Store spare seed in a sealed container in a cool, dry place, off a damp garage floor.

Watch for trichomonosis, which has hit greenfinches and chaffinches hard. A fluffed-up, lethargic bird sitting on the feeder and not moving off is a warning sign. If you see one, take the feeders down for two or three weeks, clean them thoroughly, and let the birds disperse.

Fill little and often rather than topping up the same half-empty tube for weeks on end. A fresh, clean feeder with the right seed in it will reward you with far more birds than a cheap sack of mix ever will.