Choosing the right bird food can help you attract more of the birds you love while reducing waste around your feeding station. At Wild Birds Unlimited of Colorado Springs, we carry fresh, high-quality bird food selected with the nutritional needs and feeding preferences of wild birds in mind.

Different birds prefer different foods, and the best choice depends on the birds visiting your yard, the feeder you use, the season, and challenges such as squirrels, starlings, or food accumulating beneath your feeders. Our knowledgeable team can help you find the right combination for your backyard.

High-Quality Bird Seed Makes a Difference

Not every bag of bird seed offers the same value. Inexpensive blends often contain large amounts of filler ingredients that many backyard birds leave behind. The uneaten seed can accumulate beneath feeders, create additional cleanup, and attract unwanted visitors.

A high-quality blend contains foods birds love to eat, which means more activity at your feeders and less waste on the ground.

At Wild Birds Unlimited, you will find carefully formulated bird-food blends as well as individual foods, including:

• Black oil sunflower seed
• Sunflower chips
• Safflower
• Peanuts
• Nyjer seed
• Millet
• Suet and no-melt dough
• Seed cylinders and seed characters
• Bark Butter
• Mealworms
• Hummingbird nectar
• No-mess blends

A colorful selection of high-quality Wild Birds Unlimited bird food fills our Colorado Springs store, with neatly stacked bags of Deluxe Blend, Safflower, TreeNutty Plus, Choice Plus, Supreme Blend and several No-Mess blends displayed beneath signs showing some of the birds each food may attract.

 

What Is the Best Bird Seed for Colorado Springs?

There is no single food that is best for every bird or every backyard. However, sunflower and sunflower chips are excellent foundations because they appeal to a wide variety of birds.

Depending on your location and the season, a thoughtfully selected food or blend may attract chickadees, nuthatches, finches, woodpeckers, jays, grosbeaks, towhees, and many other Colorado birds.

We can help you make a selection based on questions such as:

• Which birds would you like to attract?
• What kind of feeder do you have?
• Do you want to reduce shells or food beneath the feeder?
• Are squirrels, starlings or other animals eating too much of the food?
• Are you feeding from an apartment, patio or smaller space?
• Do you need a food that will remain available longer between refills?

You do not have to solve every feeding challenge through trial and error. Bring us a photograph of your feeder or feeding station or tell us what you are seeing, and we will be happy to help.

No-Mess Bird Seed

No-mess bird food is an excellent choice for patios, balconies, landscaped areas, and other places where shells beneath the feeder are a concern.

These blends contain foods without shells, so birds can eat nearly everything offered. Because you are not paying for discarded shells or unwanted filler ingredients, no-mess food can also offer better value than its bag price initially suggests.

Wild Birds Unlimited offers several no-mess options, allowing us to help you choose one that fits the birds in your yard and the type of feeder you use.

Seed Cylinders and Stackable Bird Foods

Seed cylinders are made by tightly compressing high-quality bird food into a solid shape. Birds peck small pieces from the cylinder instead of tossing through loose seed, so the food generally lasts longer and is less likely to be scattered or carried away quickly.

We carry cylinders in different sizes and recipes, including options made with sunflower, peanuts, fruit, mealworms, hot pepper, and other specialty ingredients. Seed characters and smaller stackable foods provide even more ways to offer variety.

Seed cylinders can be especially useful when you:

• Want food to last longer between refills
• Have a busy feeding station
• Plan to be away from home
• Want to reduce scattered or wasted food
• Prefer a convenient, easy-to-handle option
• Want to offer multiple foods from one feeder

The recipe and feeder style both influence which birds are most likely to visit. Our team can help you choose the right cylinder and seed cylinder feeder for your backyard.

Bird Food for Different Species

Finches

Finches commonly enjoy sunflower chips and Nyjer seed. A finch feeder with fresh food can attract species such as American Goldfinches, Lesser Goldfinches, House Finches, and Pine Siskins.

Chickadees and Nuthatches

Sunflower, peanuts, suet, Bark Butter, and high-quality blends can all appeal to chickadees and nuthatches.

Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers often enjoy peanuts, suet, no-melt dough and Bark Butter. The feeder style can be just as important as the food, especially for birds like woodpeckers that prefer to cling while eating.

Jays, Magpies, & Crows

These Corvids are enthusiastic fans of peanuts and foods containing larger nut pieces. They can also be entertaining visitors to platform and peanut feeders.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds should be offered plain nectar made with one part refined white sugar and four parts water. Do not use red dye, honey, brown sugar, or artificial sweeteners. Hummingbird feeders must be cleaned regularly, and nectar needs to be changed more frequently during hot weather.

 

Solutions for Common Bird-Feeding Challenges

The right food can help address many common backyard problems.

If food is collecting beneath your feeders, a shell-free or no-mess blend may help. If squirrels are dominating the feeding station, hot-pepper bird food or a squirrel-resistant feeder may be an option. If larger birds are consuming everything, we can discuss foods and feeder styles that favor smaller songbirds.

Sometimes the food is not the source of the problem. Feeder placement, weather, nearby habitat, food freshness, and the design of the feeder can all influence bird activity. We will help you consider the entire feeding station rather than simply recommending another bag of seed.

Freshness and Proper Storage

Bird food should be kept cool and dry in a secure container. Proper storage helps preserve freshness while protecting food from moisture, insects, and rodents. Read more about keeping bird food fresh, including how to recognize food that should be replaced.

Purchase an amount that you can use while it is still fresh (within 4-6 weeks), and check your feeders regularly for wet or spoiled food. Feeders should also be cleaned routinely to support the health of visiting birds.

Follow our backyard bird-care guide for advice on keeping feeders, bird baths, seed and hummingbird nectar clean and fresh.

If you are unsure if your food is still fresh, bring a sample to the store and let us take a look.

Save on Bird Food With the Daily Savings Club

Members of our Daily Savings Club receive 15% off bird food every day, earn a $10 Bird Buck for every $200 spent, and receive other member benefits. Ask our team if you have questions about joining or using your benefits.

Visit Your Local Colorado Springs Bird-Feeding Experts

Wild Birds Unlimited of Colorado Springs is locally owned and operated. We are proud to help our neighbors experience more joy from the birds in their own yards while feeding them responsibly.

Visit us at 2450 Montebello Square Drive in Colorado Springs to explore our selection of bird seed, specialty foods, feeders, bird baths, nature gifts, birdwatching optics, and locally made art.

We are always happy to answer your bird-feeding questions, even if you are not making a purchase. Tell us which birds you hope to attract or what challenge you are experiencing, and we will help you find a solution.

You can also shop our Colorado Springs store online. Your order will be prepared and packed by the same local team you see in our store.