The No-Mess Blend of chipped seeds and nuts provides the best of bird foods with no waste or shells.
The WBU Winter SuperBlend is specifically formulated to provide birds with the essential energy and fats needed during winter.
Bark Butter Bits provide an excellent no-mess treat for a wide variety of birds.
Feeding birds is rewarding, but let’s face it, it can get messy as seed shells cover the ground, and get scattered about your yard, deck, or patio. If you keep on top of the seed shell build-up, it’s still a dirty clean-up hassle that many birders avoid by feeding shelled seeds, most specifically shelled sunflower seeds and shelled peanuts. Pound for pound, shelled seeds offer the best value because you don’t pay for uneaten shells – the birds eat everything. Then too, why buy seed mixes when almost all birds will eat shelled black oil sunflower seeds, which are healthiest too.
If there is a lot of competition at your feeders, it may be best to provide thistle seed in a tube feeder for smaller finches. Overall though, it’s best to avoid discount bird seed mixes because they usually have a lot of cereal grain filler seeds that most birds don’t prefer and those seeds usually end up on the ground to add to the mess and attract small mammals. That not only constitutes wasted seeds, but wasted money too.
As stated above, shelled black oil sunflower seeds are the best option, along with shelled peanuts and a separate feeder for nyger thistle seeds. And of course, suet is a no-mess high-quality bird food, which is available in a variety of blends. But just as with discount seed mixes, you need to be aware of what’s mixed into the suet. Avoid corn and seeds mixed into suet; berries might be better, but simple suet without add-ons is best. There are also no-melt suets, which are often more of a dough creation, but still comparable to suet for food values. And to repel squirrels and other mammals, hot-pepper suet works great to the benefit birds that aren’t bullied by squirrels at the feeders.
Really, it all begins with where you shop for bird food. Avoid grocery store blends, and same for many hardware store mixed bird seeds. We avoid seed mixes altogether; and we buy 20 pounds of shelled sunflower seeds at a time to avoid the mark-up on smaller bags of seeds. If you have a bird feeding specialty store in your area, that’s a good bet, and our favorite franchise is Wild Birds Unlimited, also known as WBU. Their stores are locally owned and operated, and they provide excellent products and local advice for birds visiting feeders in your area.
Wild Birds Unlimited could be considered the no-mess bird feeding experts, and they have the products that back up that reputation. Whether it’s one of the WBU No-Mess Blends of seeds and nuts, their original Bark Butter or Bark Butter Bits, and their variety of suets, WBU can help you feed birds with no mess to clean up – just keep your feeders clean.
WBU’s unique No-Mess Blends feature seeds that have had their shells removed so only the meat of the seed is left. It all starts with their simple easy-pour bags of sunflower chips, but they have a number of impressive no-mess foods available. In addition to the popular No-Mess seed blend, there is also the similar Fiery Feast, the hot-pepper treated version of No-Mess seed blend that deters squirrels and other small mammals from dominating your feeders.
Perhaps best of all, their high fat seed blend, Winter SuperBlend, is specifically formulated to provide birds with the essential energy and fats needed during winter. This super food is packed full of sunflower chips, and chips of pecans, peanuts, tree nuts, bark butter bits, and nutrasaff (saffron-derived). It’s highly attractive to a variety of birds and available as loose seeds or in a seed cylinder form.
Bark Butter Too
Perhaps the most versatile bird food of all, Bark Butter is known to be eaten by 156 different bird species! It’s our favorite WBU product, available as spreadable Bark Butter and pelleted Bark Butter Bits, plus you can get hot-pepper Bark Butter products; see Bark Butter (wbu.com)
Realistically, Wild Birds Unlimited can be your one-stop shopping store or online provider for bird foods and birding products. Whether you visit a local Wild Birds Unlimited store or shop online, you can learn more about WBU and the bird foods they offer, especially their no-mess foods, at No-Mess Blends (wbu.com) and Winter SuperBlend (wbu.com)
