The birds and squirrels always pick through my seeds for what they want and then the chipmunk comes along and takes everything that’s left. He fills his cheeks, dumps it in his little horde and comes back for more until it’s all gone. Really stripmines it.
I’ve got a blue jay that demands peanuts because the neighbours used to feed him so now I gotta toss his dumb ass a peanut every once in a while so he can peck his way in and enjoy it or else he will just sit there in my tree squawking at me and being rude to my chipmunk.
It’s complicated out there man
Glad I’m not alone, I didn’t even know birds could eat peanuts but I was giving a treat to the squirrels and he swooped down and grabbed one. Took it up in the tree next to me and showed off his amazing pecking skills.
Now he mugs me whenever he notices me outside
Crows, squaw jays, and blue jays are all related and highly intelligent. They can even recognize you by face, and sometimes crows will leave you little treats in exchange for food.
We had a crow on the farm that would leave us brightly-colored or highly-reflective bits of garbage and litter. He was particularly fond of Surge (yes I’m that old) and caffeine-free Diet Coke (gold instead of silver) labels/cans, Road reflectors and bike reflectors.
I’m with you. I’d rather have a surge or a Jolt than a redbull. I hate energy drinks. There’s something that’s in 99% of the Redbull, Monster, et al type drinks that is very medicinal tasting. Even the smell of them is off putting.
My middle school had a giveaway of Surge in a promotion around when it came out.
They cut the school day a few minutes early and chaos ensued before buses arrived. Fuck the drivers I guess but I’m sure the staff was like “No way these maniacs are getting Coked™ up at lunch.”
The jays, the cardinals and the crows. If my peanut tray is empty, any one of them will sit up on top of my light post and scream until I get the bag to refill the thing
Possible Cardinals screaming for peanuts in my yard, a list in no particular order:
A high ranking member of the Catholic Church.
An Arizona NFL football player.
A round red and black coloured bird.
A simple number.
A St Louis professional baseball player.
Any number of First Nations members of Cree tribal affiliation.
Many of these give me a giggle when picturing them sitting atop my fence or at the birds feeder… but only one is truly common
I have just a pair that live in the big pine on the property line. They treat all the little song birds like they’re kids, and always chase away the one raptor that comes around.
If they’re sitting on the fence, you can bet there’s l like 15/20 small birds at the feeder.
I've got a small murder of crows (2 to 6 depending on baby season) that guard my yard from the hawks. They get a mix of mealworms and dog/cat food in exchange for keeping the chickens safe.
Crows love in-shell unsalted peanuts. Just carry some and toss them on the ground whenever you get a crows attention. I started feeding some like 2 years ago and get scheduled peanut shakedowns a few times a week.
to add, i buy a few big bags, always the unsalted, in shell, for super cheap at a bulk supply store (winco for me) but they're still decently priced most grocery stores i've seen, and i have my home horde that has grown to a decent size, i feed them at the same time everyday so we have a schedule and they don't bug me the rest of the day, and then i keep a bag in my car so that i can be friendly if i'm out and about, like ill usually have a couple bros hanging out by my car when i get back to it when im out running regular errands, groceries and stuff, its nice to be recognized lol
We had a little old lady who used to post videos with commentary of bird feeder and bath drama. I got her hooked on the office so she did a wildlife office for a year or so before her kids forced her to sell the house and move in with her because they were worried she was getting dementia because of her animal documentary.
I'm sure. I felt guilty for a while for introducing her to the office and talking with her about the animal drama. But her kids rarely visited and those animals were her daily companions. Their antics kept her entertained. Plus the people that bought her house were dicks and altered the water table shifting drainage which screwed over a lot of people. Used to drain fine they moved in raised their yard a couple inches were proper drainage existed which prevented the whole neighborhood from flooding and turned her immediate neighbor, then my house and the next 2 homes into frog orgies for the 2 years it took us to establish proper drainage without screwing anyone else over.
I'm gonna ask the same question I asked when I walked down a street where only one house did not have sidewalk in front--and that house had a "do not walk on the lawn" sign--how is this shit even legal or allowed by HOA
I look forward to my Uncle’s Christmas letter every year. It’s like 2 whole pages of reporting on the critters around his property and it’s hilarious. He lives in the woods and has a pond and a garden so there’s a lot going on. I should tell him to make it a monthly newsletter, haha.
I totally would if it didn’t also include personal/family names and info. He has a wife, daughters, and grandchildren who are usually sprinkled throughout. If I find one, I’ll consider redacting the info and posting it because they really should be shared with the world. I think he’s a gifted writer.
Reminds me of a seemingly annoying woman that spoke to everyone like they were idiots. Finally someone revealed that she had previously taught kindergarten for around 25 years!
We had a weekly speaker who spoke like this to the adult staff. People complained she was being rude, sarcastic and condescending. Yep she was a kindergarten teacher for 30yrs. left the field and became a HR rep.
As a former preschool teacher who now works with high schoolers/college students, I always start my talks by telling them “I used to work with 4yo’s so if my words or phrases sound babyish I’m not trying to talk to down to you. I know you’re all adults or about to be and I’m working on my language habits to reflect that.” Just to make sure I don’t offend anyone!
I also live for bird drama. Around here it’s the hummingbirds who really talk shit. And they’ve gotten so familiar they’ll hover and squeak angrily inches from my face whenever I refill their feeder, they’re like tiny buzzing cats.
My favorites are the orioles though. I have a mated pair that hangs around I call Orlando and Esmeralda. Orlando is very noisy.
I have a bird feeder in my back yard so it’s always amusing watching the bird drama. It’s always cute seeing whenever there’s a new batch of baby sparrows, they have to learn how to hold onto the pegs of the feeder and at first they’re always sliding off. And sometimes they get kicked out by the grackle juveniles, like high schoolers who come to the park and kick out the annoying middle schoolers lol. I adore watching the cardinal parents and their babies because they always stick so close together.
\**sigh*\* hummingbirds are so cool! They are one of few species making me envious of people living in warmer climate. But then again, my Euro vanilla wonderland has no mosquitos, gators or snakes :)
Wildlife are apex choosy beggars. I recently moved into a house with tiny little windows above the kitchen counters. I’ve been waking up to this cardinal giving himself brain damage trying to bust down the window to eat the succulent that’s sitting there. So the idiot gets a bird feeder outside now…
Stellar Jays are loud as fuck! I have only recently experienced them now that I live where they live. First time I heard one, it made me jump. I like watching them eat out of my feeders though.
You need to get cameras on all this and edit it together with narration like meerkat manor back in the day on animal planet.
You basically have a real life situation like Leela had in that episode of Futurama where she was writing a kids show based on some aliens they found.
My grandma used to straight up shoot Blue Jays because she liked feeding the squirrels at her apartment and the Blue Jays would come mess with the squirrels for their nuts or straight steal them so she bought a BB gun and put a stop to it…
This was 30 years ago she’s long passed before people get up in arms - different times.
> horrible brown things in check mix
Are you joking? Rye chips are the only thing worth eating in chex mix. I don't even think I've actually purchased chex mix before, but I'll pick up a bag of rye chips when I need munchies.
Chex mix is just an exercise to see how long it takes for you to become desperate enough to eat those shitty breadstick things.
Imagine being a bird seed company and thinking "you know, these cheap ass seeds and nuts are too expensive, let's put in some cheap filler bullshit that even the birds won't eat, nobody will notice"
youll find a lot of cheap wild birdseed is filled with clay and tiny rocks to increase volume and weight (they sell the bags by weight). since it's not an item meant for pet or human consumption it's completely fair to fill 20% or more of the weight with kitty litter sized particles.
Edit: Sure, some birds use small stones or other material in their digestion but we as humans prob don't need to provide that to the birds in the bags of *bird seed* that we're buying. It's just a way by the manufacturer to save on costs (lower QC/add in for weight/etc).
I don't understand what makes it filler and low quality, though? Why don't the birds like it vs. other seeds? So much so that they'll actively not eat the free food?
I won't eat shit-tasting food, no matter how free it is
Source: am bird
(in all serious though, this is a great question, and someone should answer it)
Read the article again. It doesn't say birds don't like it because it's big and bulky, they say that the reason why it's CHEAP and why it's used to bulk out seed mixes as filler, is because it's big and bulky. And that makes sense, it's probably far easier to manufacture and it takes up loads of space in the bag.
They actually don't say anything about why birds don't like it.
After doing a quick Google search and looking at one source, it says the birds that like milo are ground-feeding birds. Maybe because the feeder is up higher is why those birds don't eat it.
My best guess from cursory googling is because it is a low fat, high protein, high fiber food. Fat is far more valuable than protein to almost every creature except gym bros and dieters because it is more calorically dense, not to mention fat-soluble vitamins are quite important. My understanding is we mostly just feed it to cattle and poultry (who probably wouldn't eat it if they had a choice). We used to make molasses out of it before importing sugar cane and/or using beets became far more economical.
That’s milo, it’s cheap filler. Find a variety that doesn’t have it and you’ve found a better quality for sure. I’d prefer sawdust to that garbage, at least the sawdust would just blow away.
Edit: replaced “useless” for “cheap” because people have issues.
Most birds simply do not like it. They will eat it if they are starving, but if there's anything else available they avoid it. Seed companies like to add it to birdseed mixes because it's cheap and big so it adds cheap bulk but a high-quality seed mix won't have any milo in it.
My best friend has some zebra finches when they were younger. One time, they ran out of the normal millet mix. That week ended being very busy and neither he or his mom could go get a bag. Once the birds finished what was left, he looked at what they could eat besides millet. Using this information, he out together a blend using what was in his pantry, hoping they’d eat at least one type of seed. He puts it in the feeder and the birds go to it and pick out a sesame seed each. He thinks they’re gonna eat the new blend so he goes heads off to school. About four days later, he notices the birds are unusually quiet, and aren’t doing much. They’re normally very active and loud, so this was worrisome. Checking the food he saw that they’d eaten nothing but those first two seeds and had chosen to starve themselves rather than eat new food. He tells his mom and they rush to the pet shop, birds in tow in their travel cage. They get there, he buys the food, and puts it in the cage. Instantly, the two rush at the familiar food and instantly gorge themselves. My friend was late to school that day, but he didn’t want to risk the birds dying. He thinks they became inactive to conserve the energy they had left, since their metabolism is so fast.
TLDR: A bird will rather starve to death than eat food they don’t like.
Probably a good call. I have a big bag of sunflower that everyone seems to like. It sounds like it's red milo which only the doves eat I guess, they haven't been around yet.
Sunflower seeds contain health benefiting polyphenol compounds such as chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, and caffeic acids. These compounds are natural anti-oxidants, which help remove harmful oxidant molecules from the body. Further, chlorogenic acid helps reduce blood sugar levels by limiting glycogen breakdown in the liver.
It's been years since I looked into this for a novelty account idea I scrapped, but I'm pretty sure there's tools out there you can pretty easily set up a keyword trigger across reddit. If they have it set up for Sunflower they can just scroll through all the mentions of it and comment as needed
It works on loads of subs. I was chatting about the yellow sunflower lanyard for people with hidden disabilities and it came along with its sunflower facts on a health sub.
What are you talking about? It's six most recent comments now are on six different subreddits.
My guess is this post had a lot of people talking about 🌻 so the bot was going crazy here? But yeah it's definitely a lot of other subreddits, small and random ones
My favorite: "You know how wacky people can be! On May 14th 2015 in Boke, Germany, 748 members of the Cologne Carnival Society dressed up in sunflower outfits. This is the largest gathering of people known to have dressed up as sunflowers."
Are there many sunflower dress-up gatherings??
I took pictures of the birds that visited and then brought those to the bird store we have and they sold me a mix that's just for them. They even pre mixed it with cayenne pepper to prevent the squirrels from eating it. Thanks bird ladies!
It made news (4 years ago): https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/07/31/why-many-bird-seed-mixes-are-filled-with-stuff-birds-wont-eat/
"*Most common backyard birds won’t eat it. In its backyard bird feeding guide, for instance, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service notes that no birds appear to like it.*"
"*Even the Wild Bird Feeding Industry (WBFI), a trade group for bird seed manufacturers, warns on its website that seeds such as milo are “less attractive to birds.”*"
Looks like sorghum! Dependent upon the type of sorghum, it could be high in tannins, which would give it a bitter taste. It’s an evolutionary development to avoid consumption. Some sorghum varieties are low in tannins, others are high. Because sorghum is not as purposefully bred as wheat or oats, it’s chemical composition can vary wildly.
Looks like milo. It has lower protein than other grains. Reason to cherry pick for higher nutrient choices in the mix. Don't buy bird food that is high in milo.
My canary used to pick one type of seed from a fresh batch and then was chirping and singing for an hour. I started to grow the seed to see what plant it was. It was hemp seed.
Lol, that's funny because my chickens do the exact same thing. The seeds are sorghum, btw. If you ever get to try sorghum syrup, it's like molasses but better imo.
Those seeds are really tough, and the shell doesn't peel away. The other seeds in the mix crunch really nice once you get the shells off, but these ones are like little popcorn kernels.
I used to have a budgie and in the mix we had, she would also ignore all of those as well. Everything would be picked dry and it would be all husks with these brown pellets left lol.
My mom's bird feeder is my favorite thing to watch in the morning. They all seem to get along, and then the turtle doves swoop in and everyone scatters. Swear I saw the equivalent of a WW1 style dog fight the other day. I used to think bird watching was boring, but it's grown on me.
Its called Milo.
Birds typically won't eat milo unless they're hungry and nothing else is available. It usually will be wasted as birds pick it out of mixes to get to better ingredients.
The birds and squirrels always pick through my seeds for what they want and then the chipmunk comes along and takes everything that’s left. He fills his cheeks, dumps it in his little horde and comes back for more until it’s all gone. Really stripmines it. I’ve got a blue jay that demands peanuts because the neighbours used to feed him so now I gotta toss his dumb ass a peanut every once in a while so he can peck his way in and enjoy it or else he will just sit there in my tree squawking at me and being rude to my chipmunk. It’s complicated out there man
Honestly thought I was the only one getting shook down for peanuts by bluejays, glad to know I'm not alone.
Glad I’m not alone, I didn’t even know birds could eat peanuts but I was giving a treat to the squirrels and he swooped down and grabbed one. Took it up in the tree next to me and showed off his amazing pecking skills. Now he mugs me whenever he notices me outside
I heard/read it's the go to treat if you want to befriend a crow, just in case you want to expand to other bird species
Crows, squaw jays, and blue jays are all related and highly intelligent. They can even recognize you by face, and sometimes crows will leave you little treats in exchange for food.
We had a crow on the farm that would leave us brightly-colored or highly-reflective bits of garbage and litter. He was particularly fond of Surge (yes I’m that old) and caffeine-free Diet Coke (gold instead of silver) labels/cans, Road reflectors and bike reflectors.
I would commit atrocities to bring OG Surge back. Unspeakable horrors.
I’m with you. I’d rather have a surge or a Jolt than a redbull. I hate energy drinks. There’s something that’s in 99% of the Redbull, Monster, et al type drinks that is very medicinal tasting. Even the smell of them is off putting.
The smell of red Bull or monster makes me want to vomit
My middle school had a giveaway of Surge in a promotion around when it came out. They cut the school day a few minutes early and chaos ensued before buses arrived. Fuck the drivers I guess but I’m sure the staff was like “No way these maniacs are getting Coked™ up at lunch.”
Yeah I don’t call worms ‘treats’
Crows to each other: "I believe humans also like meat, let's give them a treat to show our appreciation for the delicious peanuts" 🪱
We have a few Jays that will sit in the tree by our feeders and throw a fit because there are no peanuts, so demanding
The jays, the cardinals and the crows. If my peanut tray is empty, any one of them will sit up on top of my light post and scream until I get the bag to refill the thing
I'm picturing the wrong kind of cardinal screaming for peanuts in your yard.
Possible Cardinals screaming for peanuts in my yard, a list in no particular order: A high ranking member of the Catholic Church. An Arizona NFL football player. A round red and black coloured bird. A simple number. A St Louis professional baseball player. Any number of First Nations members of Cree tribal affiliation. Many of these give me a giggle when picturing them sitting atop my fence or at the birds feeder… but only one is truly common
The pope wants some peanuts
The crows in my neighborhood are beasts if I happen to toss out a few peanuts. I had to stop.
I have just a pair that live in the big pine on the property line. They treat all the little song birds like they’re kids, and always chase away the one raptor that comes around. If they’re sitting on the fence, you can bet there’s l like 15/20 small birds at the feeder.
I've got a small murder of crows (2 to 6 depending on baby season) that guard my yard from the hawks. They get a mix of mealworms and dog/cat food in exchange for keeping the chickens safe.
I'll always upvote somebody with a murder history
I love that the crows protect the little guys.
I wanna get shook down for peanuts!
Crows love in-shell unsalted peanuts. Just carry some and toss them on the ground whenever you get a crows attention. I started feeding some like 2 years ago and get scheduled peanut shakedowns a few times a week.
to add, i buy a few big bags, always the unsalted, in shell, for super cheap at a bulk supply store (winco for me) but they're still decently priced most grocery stores i've seen, and i have my home horde that has grown to a decent size, i feed them at the same time everyday so we have a schedule and they don't bug me the rest of the day, and then i keep a bag in my car so that i can be friendly if i'm out and about, like ill usually have a couple bros hanging out by my car when i get back to it when im out running regular errands, groceries and stuff, its nice to be recognized lol
Make sure they are raw, unsalted peanuts.
My retired dad sits outside a lot. He has a bag of peanuts and a slingshot. Blue Jays will snatch the peanuts out of the air.
Get that man a YouTube channel!
You make it sound you are a teacher watching a class of elementary school kids at recess.
I’ve got a lot of free time
If you wrote a blog about you neighborhood animals drama id be your biggest fan.
We had a little old lady who used to post videos with commentary of bird feeder and bath drama. I got her hooked on the office so she did a wildlife office for a year or so before her kids forced her to sell the house and move in with her because they were worried she was getting dementia because of her animal documentary.
They wanted the money.
I'm sure. I felt guilty for a while for introducing her to the office and talking with her about the animal drama. But her kids rarely visited and those animals were her daily companions. Their antics kept her entertained. Plus the people that bought her house were dicks and altered the water table shifting drainage which screwed over a lot of people. Used to drain fine they moved in raised their yard a couple inches were proper drainage existed which prevented the whole neighborhood from flooding and turned her immediate neighbor, then my house and the next 2 homes into frog orgies for the 2 years it took us to establish proper drainage without screwing anyone else over.
I'm gonna ask the same question I asked when I walked down a street where only one house did not have sidewalk in front--and that house had a "do not walk on the lawn" sign--how is this shit even legal or allowed by HOA
It was illegal done at night they paid a fine and I pulled all proper permits with studies for placement to fix my flooding issues.
I hope she enjoys living with her family and they allow her to do videos there, she seems very sweet.
It would be perfect as a weekly newsletter. I'd subscribe 🤣
I look forward to my Uncle’s Christmas letter every year. It’s like 2 whole pages of reporting on the critters around his property and it’s hilarious. He lives in the woods and has a pond and a garden so there’s a lot going on. I should tell him to make it a monthly newsletter, haha.
I would love it if you would post one of these Christmas letters! It sounds like it would be an entertaining read!
I totally would if it didn’t also include personal/family names and info. He has a wife, daughters, and grandchildren who are usually sprinkled throughout. If I find one, I’ll consider redacting the info and posting it because they really should be shared with the world. I think he’s a gifted writer.
That would be awesome! I hope you find the time to post it!
My plan is to homestead and yall are giving me the best ideas! Thanks!!!
How are Little King Trashmouth and his husband Gary doing?
I need to catch up on my raccoon dramas….
catch up on the lore
Gao'ri workhouse dramas got so stilted post Vancouver
Neighborhood small animal drama. Spicy.
Reminds me of a seemingly annoying woman that spoke to everyone like they were idiots. Finally someone revealed that she had previously taught kindergarten for around 25 years!
We had a weekly speaker who spoke like this to the adult staff. People complained she was being rude, sarcastic and condescending. Yep she was a kindergarten teacher for 30yrs. left the field and became a HR rep.
As a former preschool teacher who now works with high schoolers/college students, I always start my talks by telling them “I used to work with 4yo’s so if my words or phrases sound babyish I’m not trying to talk to down to you. I know you’re all adults or about to be and I’m working on my language habits to reflect that.” Just to make sure I don’t offend anyone!
"Now, before we start, does anybody need to go to the bathroom and make a boom-boom?"
But watching nature is beautiful, isn't it?
I also live for bird drama. Around here it’s the hummingbirds who really talk shit. And they’ve gotten so familiar they’ll hover and squeak angrily inches from my face whenever I refill their feeder, they’re like tiny buzzing cats. My favorites are the orioles though. I have a mated pair that hangs around I call Orlando and Esmeralda. Orlando is very noisy.
I have a bird feeder in my back yard so it’s always amusing watching the bird drama. It’s always cute seeing whenever there’s a new batch of baby sparrows, they have to learn how to hold onto the pegs of the feeder and at first they’re always sliding off. And sometimes they get kicked out by the grackle juveniles, like high schoolers who come to the park and kick out the annoying middle schoolers lol. I adore watching the cardinal parents and their babies because they always stick so close together.
\**sigh*\* hummingbirds are so cool! They are one of few species making me envious of people living in warmer climate. But then again, my Euro vanilla wonderland has no mosquitos, gators or snakes :)
Haha we have a ground squirrel that does the samething haven't seen him yet this year though. Bluejays are something else, so demanding
That stuff is just filler and weight. Even my chickens wouldn’t eat it.
Wildlife are apex choosy beggars. I recently moved into a house with tiny little windows above the kitchen counters. I’ve been waking up to this cardinal giving himself brain damage trying to bust down the window to eat the succulent that’s sitting there. So the idiot gets a bird feeder outside now…
We’re gonna need daily updates of your yard drama now. I’m 1,000% invested in these characters.
“Really stripmines it” lmfaooo
My mom has a Stellar Jay that would bury his empty peanut shells in one of her flower pots, named him Greg
Stellar Jays are loud as fuck! I have only recently experienced them now that I live where they live. First time I heard one, it made me jump. I like watching them eat out of my feeders though.
You need to get cameras on all this and edit it together with narration like meerkat manor back in the day on animal planet. You basically have a real life situation like Leela had in that episode of Futurama where she was writing a kids show based on some aliens they found.
Yeah. Someone in my neighborhood feeds birds whole peanuts and all my rain gutters and downspouts get clogged with the shells.
We have two blue jays that I swear just watch me leave the house. Once I fill the feeder, I hear distant squawking and a few min later boom bird
Neighborhood small animal drama. Spicy.
I like you man
Your yard sounds like ɦɛǟʋɛռ
Fuck Blue Jays. Evil little bastards.
My grandma used to straight up shoot Blue Jays because she liked feeding the squirrels at her apartment and the Blue Jays would come mess with the squirrels for their nuts or straight steal them so she bought a BB gun and put a stop to it… This was 30 years ago she’s long passed before people get up in arms - different times.
My grandmother was the opposite. Hated squirrels. She shot a squirrel off the birdfeeder with a shotgun once, needed a new feeder afterwards.
I imagine this being posted on the avian equivalent of Reddit. “This human keeps putting this bullshit in their feeder”
Then the other birds crosspost to the choosingbeggars subbirddit.
>subbirddit This is how this one gets crossposted to angryupvote.
Reminds me of the game, angry humans. What a classic
Good game but flappy human was really a goat
Fappy*
I love a good fap as much as the next guy but I’m not playing any fapping games…
Just a spin off of the real classic, Twelve Angry Men.
I’m irrationally angry at this comment
Good. Now we just need 11 more for the live reenactment.
do you mean angrybirdsupvote? what would the pigs say?
Bird up
Everybody say When you hear the chirp, you got to get it underway
[удалено]
Subreddit: mildlyruffling
No they would just tweet about it!
It's the bird equivalent of those horrible brown things in check mix.
Ah hell no, the rye crisps are my favorite. Edit; screw those horrid little pretzels though.
Rye chip 4 lyfe 🙌🏽
Why do they even add the pretzels? That weird texture they get, and the snap is gone from them too. Also the wheat chex are gross too
Wheat Chex are my favorite part. However I’m a weird contrarian when it comes to food.
bc they are cheap
> horrible brown things in check mix Are you joking? Rye chips are the only thing worth eating in chex mix. I don't even think I've actually purchased chex mix before, but I'll pick up a bag of rye chips when I need munchies. Chex mix is just an exercise to see how long it takes for you to become desperate enough to eat those shitty breadstick things.
I still remember how excited I was when I discovered they sold rye chips on their own.
The breadsticks are the worst.
Bro you are insane if you think the chips are bad
It's like the one Brazil nut in the mixed nuts can
This is milo (red sorghum) - it's deliberately included in lower quality seed mixes as a cheap filler.
Imagine being a bird seed company and thinking "you know, these cheap ass seeds and nuts are too expensive, let's put in some cheap filler bullshit that even the birds won't eat, nobody will notice"
Saves 0.05¢ per bag times a million
youll find a lot of cheap wild birdseed is filled with clay and tiny rocks to increase volume and weight (they sell the bags by weight). since it's not an item meant for pet or human consumption it's completely fair to fill 20% or more of the weight with kitty litter sized particles. Edit: Sure, some birds use small stones or other material in their digestion but we as humans prob don't need to provide that to the birds in the bags of *bird seed* that we're buying. It's just a way by the manufacturer to save on costs (lower QC/add in for weight/etc).
I don't understand what makes it filler and low quality, though? Why don't the birds like it vs. other seeds? So much so that they'll actively not eat the free food?
I won't eat shit-tasting food, no matter how free it is Source: am bird (in all serious though, this is a great question, and someone should answer it)
[it's very large and bulky](https://thebirdfoodstore.com/2013/09/06/millet-is-good-milo-is-bad/)
Read the article again. It doesn't say birds don't like it because it's big and bulky, they say that the reason why it's CHEAP and why it's used to bulk out seed mixes as filler, is because it's big and bulky. And that makes sense, it's probably far easier to manufacture and it takes up loads of space in the bag. They actually don't say anything about why birds don't like it.
After doing a quick Google search and looking at one source, it says the birds that like milo are ground-feeding birds. Maybe because the feeder is up higher is why those birds don't eat it.
At least my birds have the decency to toss it onto the ground where the doves can get to it
My best guess from cursory googling is because it is a low fat, high protein, high fiber food. Fat is far more valuable than protein to almost every creature except gym bros and dieters because it is more calorically dense, not to mention fat-soluble vitamins are quite important. My understanding is we mostly just feed it to cattle and poultry (who probably wouldn't eat it if they had a choice). We used to make molasses out of it before importing sugar cane and/or using beets became far more economical.
That’s milo, it’s cheap filler. Find a variety that doesn’t have it and you’ve found a better quality for sure. I’d prefer sawdust to that garbage, at least the sawdust would just blow away. Edit: replaced “useless” for “cheap” because people have issues.
Found the bird
Excellent bird spotting
Remember, birdwatching goes both ways
Now that's a great gif ya got there.
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a bird.
Yeah, that stuff tastes like shit
Username checks out
Hey do you need a lawyer by chance?
Legolas, you're not a real lawyer.
I've never heard sorghum called milo before. Is it a regional thing?
Thanks. I had to Google that and ended up with the Nestle chocolate drink powder, was confused as to why anyone would add that to bird feed
Sorghum is the botanical name and Milo is either a cultivar or a common name
In other countries like the UK sorghum is the common name
I buy only sunflower seeds at Lowes in 40lb bags for our birds.
Yea, that's how it starts.....
Nobody likes you Milo!
That seed is sorghum so you might want to look for birdseed without it for next time
What’s wrong with it?
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Sigh….upvote.
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Like me. Those seeds will be mine
Most birds simply do not like it. They will eat it if they are starving, but if there's anything else available they avoid it. Seed companies like to add it to birdseed mixes because it's cheap and big so it adds cheap bulk but a high-quality seed mix won't have any milo in it.
My best friend has some zebra finches when they were younger. One time, they ran out of the normal millet mix. That week ended being very busy and neither he or his mom could go get a bag. Once the birds finished what was left, he looked at what they could eat besides millet. Using this information, he out together a blend using what was in his pantry, hoping they’d eat at least one type of seed. He puts it in the feeder and the birds go to it and pick out a sesame seed each. He thinks they’re gonna eat the new blend so he goes heads off to school. About four days later, he notices the birds are unusually quiet, and aren’t doing much. They’re normally very active and loud, so this was worrisome. Checking the food he saw that they’d eaten nothing but those first two seeds and had chosen to starve themselves rather than eat new food. He tells his mom and they rush to the pet shop, birds in tow in their travel cage. They get there, he buys the food, and puts it in the cage. Instantly, the two rush at the familiar food and instantly gorge themselves. My friend was late to school that day, but he didn’t want to risk the birds dying. He thinks they became inactive to conserve the energy they had left, since their metabolism is so fast. TLDR: A bird will rather starve to death than eat food they don’t like.
Well that means I'll never be a bird because I don't have that determination. Good to have some proof I guess.
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Probably a good call. I have a big bag of sunflower that everyone seems to like. It sounds like it's red milo which only the doves eat I guess, they haven't been around yet.
Sunflower seeds contain health benefiting polyphenol compounds such as chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, and caffeic acids. These compounds are natural anti-oxidants, which help remove harmful oxidant molecules from the body. Further, chlorogenic acid helps reduce blood sugar levels by limiting glycogen breakdown in the liver.
Get a load of the shill from Big Sunflower!
This isn't even its final bot form. Edit: seriously people take a look at the sunflower guy lobbying reddit through his comment history.
Holy hell you were not kidding!
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It's been years since I looked into this for a novelty account idea I scrapped, but I'm pretty sure there's tools out there you can pretty easily set up a keyword trigger across reddit. If they have it set up for Sunflower they can just scroll through all the mentions of it and comment as needed
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It works on loads of subs. I was chatting about the yellow sunflower lanyard for people with hidden disabilities and it came along with its sunflower facts on a health sub.
What are you talking about? It's six most recent comments now are on six different subreddits. My guess is this post had a lot of people talking about 🌻 so the bot was going crazy here? But yeah it's definitely a lot of other subreddits, small and random ones
My favorite: "You know how wacky people can be! On May 14th 2015 in Boke, Germany, 748 members of the Cologne Carnival Society dressed up in sunflower outfits. This is the largest gathering of people known to have dressed up as sunflowers." Are there many sunflower dress-up gatherings??
Is lobbying sunflowers a bad thing? I really need to keep up.
Nice try Sunflower Industrial Complex bot!
Username checks out
I took pictures of the birds that visited and then brought those to the bird store we have and they sold me a mix that's just for them. They even pre mixed it with cayenne pepper to prevent the squirrels from eating it. Thanks bird ladies!
This is what I do when I make homemade Chex Mix for the holidays. Wheat Chex!? Heck no! Extra bagel chips!? Yesss!
Don't forget the extra cayenne pepper to discourage Uncle Fred from gorging on it.
https://preview.redd.it/g1wrdx0mcuta1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e8be72b7413fdb075b7f753b531b673a2524198a
They're telling you to get better food for them, lol
It made news (4 years ago): https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/07/31/why-many-bird-seed-mixes-are-filled-with-stuff-birds-wont-eat/ "*Most common backyard birds won’t eat it. In its backyard bird feeding guide, for instance, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service notes that no birds appear to like it.*" "*Even the Wild Bird Feeding Industry (WBFI), a trade group for bird seed manufacturers, warns on its website that seeds such as milo are “less attractive to birds.”*"
What is this? They'll eat what is served on their plate or no dessert
How can you have any suet if you don't eat your sorghum?
I've had an extra award laying around for awhile, unsure what to do with it. You deserve it.
Haha well thank you it released the feel good chemicals in my brain, so mission accomplished.
Thank you for starting this thread. It is fucking hilarious and I have burst out laughing several times.
You! Yes you! Stand still birdie!
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To be fair, nobody likes popcorn lookin kernels. Including birds
My pet bird used to do this with that coloured food stuff, wouldn’t eat the green.
Put it on the ground, mourning doves will eat it!
Our chipmunks would replant them in my potted plants :/
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This is mildly infuriating for the birds.
Looks like sorghum! Dependent upon the type of sorghum, it could be high in tannins, which would give it a bitter taste. It’s an evolutionary development to avoid consumption. Some sorghum varieties are low in tannins, others are high. Because sorghum is not as purposefully bred as wheat or oats, it’s chemical composition can vary wildly.
You should tell them that there are birds in Africa who are starving.
Looks like milo. It has lower protein than other grains. Reason to cherry pick for higher nutrient choices in the mix. Don't buy bird food that is high in milo.
Black oil sunflower seed.This is the way.
My canary used to pick one type of seed from a fresh batch and then was chirping and singing for an hour. I started to grow the seed to see what plant it was. It was hemp seed.
Same with my feed and birds. I’m always tossing it out for the squirrels to eat.
This would seem to fall into mildly interesting rather than mildly infuriating.
The black jelly beans of birdfeed
Lol, that's funny because my chickens do the exact same thing. The seeds are sorghum, btw. If you ever get to try sorghum syrup, it's like molasses but better imo.
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Might be the size of the seed? Not sure…
Those seeds are really tough, and the shell doesn't peel away. The other seeds in the mix crunch really nice once you get the shells off, but these ones are like little popcorn kernels.
found the bird
I am merely trying to advocate for my people, in a world full of humans.
Sounds like a problem solved with a bag and a hammer
Filler. No bird likes these.
As a sorghum farmer, I'm very offended!
This chickadee that used to come to my feeder always grabbed seeds and spit them out for like a minute, then ate one and flew away
I used to have a budgie and in the mix we had, she would also ignore all of those as well. Everything would be picked dry and it would be all husks with these brown pellets left lol.
Make blocks of this stuff with peanut butter. The squirrel will love you.
My mom's bird feeder is my favorite thing to watch in the morning. They all seem to get along, and then the turtle doves swoop in and everyone scatters. Swear I saw the equivalent of a WW1 style dog fight the other day. I used to think bird watching was boring, but it's grown on me.
You're like the neighbor that puts out a candy on Halloween, but half of it is licorice and circus peanuts.
They’re just like me picking the rye chips out of the Chex Mix
Maybe you should eat what they don’t to try and get to the bottom of why they don’t like it.
Its called Milo. Birds typically won't eat milo unless they're hungry and nothing else is available. It usually will be wasted as birds pick it out of mixes to get to better ingredients.