9 DIY Seed Recipes That Offer Variety To The Birds In Your Yard

There's nothing more satisfying than watching birds flock to your garden to snack on the birdseed you made just for them. Whether you live in an area full of blue jays, robins, hummingbirds, or chickadees, you don't need to spend money on expensive birdseed to gather winged creatures to your yard. In fact, you probably already have multiple birdseed ingredients in your garden or kitchen pantry, such as sugar, watermelon seeds, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, and peanuts. Your neighborhood birds will love a DIY combination you can create, and you'll soon notice that some birds prefer specific treats over others.

While you can always purchase seed at your local pet or home improvement store, it's way more cost-effective to DIY your very own birdseed out of items you already have. Plus, you can mix and match ingredients to attract different birds to your backyard. Note that common mixed birdseeds contain lots of "fillers," like rolled oats, which you should avoid using in your feeder at all costs, as they are typically not as appealing to backyard birds. Chances are, the birds will pick through the feed to get to the stuff they really like, like sunflower seeds and shelled corn. Refrain from adding certain filler ingredients to your birdseed, like red milo, which tends to attract more aggressive birds, and you won't get as much variety at your feeder. 

One classic birdseed recipe that will appeal to a ton of backyard birds includes four basic ingredients, most of which you may already have in your pantry. Combine 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 cup of sunflower seeds, a few tablespoons of peanut butter, and some watermelon seeds. Birds prefer cornmeal when mixed with a fat, like peanut butter, but it's important to ensure the peanut butter is mixed with the cornmeal for a gritty texture and kept at a temperature that makes it hard. Otherwise, the sticky substance may be harmful to the birds. 

If you want to attract your favorite birds, like cardinals, woodpeckers, and finches, make sure to create a birdseed mix that includes black oil sunflower seeds. For this recipe, combine black oil sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, shelled peanuts, and nyjer seeds. This mix is perfect for smaller birds, as it provides energy and easy-to-eat ingredients. Plus, the lack of shells will help keep the birds from making a huge mess in your bird feeder. 

Another birdseed ingredient, just as popular as black oil sunflower seeds, is white proso millet. In general, birds tend to prefer white millet over red millet, and many of them love the tiny seeds, including sparrows, doves, cardinals, thrashers, and Carolina wrens. For this recipe, you can combine 1 part white proso millet with 1 part black oil sunflower seeds and 1 part medium sunflower chips. It's important to note that birds, like house sparrows, enjoy white millet as well, and they can crowd out native birds. 

If you've never heard of suet before, let this be your introduction to an excellent ingredient for DIY birdseed. Suet is hard, raw fat that is found around the kidneys and loins of sheep and cattle, and you can purchase it crumbled, shredded, or even pre-made into treats for birds. A few common suet enjoyers include woodpeckers, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, wrens, and jays. For this recipe, combine your suet crumbles with black oil sunflower seeds, unsalted peanuts, and dried fruit. You can even create suet balls to hang in your yard. 

To attract ground feeders and larger birds to your backyard, like quails, cardinals, pheasants, grouse, doves, ducks, crows, and ravens, you may want to add shelled or cracked corn to your DIY birdseed. This ingredient can be combined with other basic birdseed products, like cracked corn, black oil sunflower seeds, and unsalted peanuts. When using corn, however, ensure it isn't wet or purchased in plastic bags, as trapped moisture can breed aflatoxins, which are deadly to birds. Note that corn can also attract unwanted visitors like sparrows, starlings, and raccoons.

Small birds like finches, chickadees, and mourning doves can be brought to your yard with a combination of nyjer seeds, classic black oil sunflower seeds, white proso millet, and sunflower chips. Nyjer seeds, in particular, are a bird favorite, containing healthy fats and oils. It's recommended to serve these seeds using a specific type of feeder, like a finch tube or mesh sock. To check the freshness of your nyjer seeds, crush a few onto a paper towel or piece of paper and see if oil comes out. If it does, that means they're still fresh. 

While it may not be a particularly appetizing ingredient to us, songbirds like chickadees, wrens, jays, nuthatches, and bluebirds love a bite of dried mealworms in their food. This is an easy addition to your DIY birdseed that is packed with nutrients for your birds. Since live mealworms aren't the easiest or prettiest ingredients to handle, you can purchase dried ones online or in store. To make a simple seed mixture with mealworms, combine them with black oil sunflower seeds, shelled peanuts, and suet crumbles. Your local songbirds will love this combination.

If you love spotting the bright blue of bluejay wings outside your window, then this DIY birdseed recipe is definitely worth a try. Like other songbirds, bluejays are big fans of peanuts, so these are often considered essential ingredients for birdseed. Normally, it's recommended to serve shelled peanuts to birds, but bluejays love peanuts still inside their shells – Sometimes even picking them up and shaking them to see if there's anything left inside. Combine unshelled peanuts with black oil sunflower seeds and striped sunflower seeds. (Note that unsalted varieties of peanuts are best for birds.)

Attract brightly-colored birds to your yard like bluebirds, cardinals, and yellow-breasted chats by incorporating dried fruit into your DIY birdseed. Dried fruits like cranberries, blueberries, chopped apples, or raisins (all ideally without extra sugar added) are excellent additions to a seed recipe. You can either mix them with basic seed ingredients, like black oil sunflower seeds and shelled peanuts, or combine them with plain gelatin in a Bundt pan to make bird feeder wreaths to hang in your garden.