Safflower

As you read my last post, on Getting Birds Into Your Backyard, I was going to post about Safflower Seeds. For a brief overview of the last post; there are two main steps to attract all sorts of birds.

1. Define what birds you want to attract.
2. Attracting birds into your backyard, and how to solve it.
3. Ways to attract birds.

To learn more, click this Link.

I have heard a lot on Safflower Seeds, in attracting Cardinals and other birds. Some people say that Safflower Seeds don't do anything for attracting birds, that squirrels love it, and that it is a complete wast of money. One the other spectrum, people say that this is a miracle seed that attracts tons of beneficial song birds, is squirrel resistant, and that it is not a waste of money. So what does one do when both sides are very adamant on their views. To find out for myself if this seed would live up to its reputation of being a miracle seed, I tried it myself.

When I went to the store to find some Safflower, I readily found it with the rest of the bird seeds. I picked up the smallest bag I could find (a 10lb bag), this way it wouldn't be a complete waste of money if it didn't work. For a 10lb bag, it cost me about $10, so 1 dollar per lb. Not too bad. I brought it home and loaded up a feeder that has been sitting in my room all winter, waiting for an opportunity to go out and be enjoyed! I set it outside in an open area, where birds could easily find it. I waited for about 3 days for a bid to come and eat the Safflower Seed, but I had no sign of birds. No empty seeds shells lying on the ground or bird waste lying on the ground. On the fourth day, to my great thrill, there was a purple finch on my feeder cautiously eating. It didn't take long for the word to get out that there was a new feeder in town. In that day alone I saw several Cardinal, a Chickadee, Purple Finches, and a Red Poll. I was flabbergasted, I didn't think this would work, but it did.
It was sort of humorous, because each time I would come to the door to see the birds, they would see me and fly away. Eventually they overcame this paranoia of me. The main purpose of this feeder was to attract Cardinals into my yard, and it worked, along with some extra bonuses. The most Cardinals I have seen came into the yard, due to the feeder, was 5. There were 4 females and one male.

Turn Out:
I think this was a very successful experiment. I do believe that Safflower Seeds attracts song birds and tends to deter squirrels. Although I have read that if squirrels are hungry enough, they will eat this seed. But overall "Their GRRRREAT"