Sunflower seed is perhaps the #1 choice to feed wild birds. If you want to attract wild birds to your porch, balcony, or other small space, you may want to try black oil sunflower seed, striped sunflower seed, hulled sunflower seed, or even growing your own dwarf sunflowers.

Caution

Shelled or hulled seed should not be roasted, salted, or otherwise treated -- it's harmful to the birds.

Black Oil Sunflower Seed

Black oil is perhaps the most common and popular among sunflower seeds. It is popular with most birds, including cardinals, woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees. Black oil sunflower seed contains many vitamins and minerals, and the oil is healthy for birds' feathers.

You can purchase bulk black oil sunflower seed in 10, 20, and 30 pound bags from a great seed supplier, eBirdseed.com.

Striped Sunflower Seed

Striped sunflower seed is larger with a harder shell and less oil than black oil sunflower seed. Since it's harder to crack, striped sunflower seeds sometimes last longer in the feeder and may deter sparrows to some extent.

Sometimes birders offer striped sunflower seed to distract squirrels and larger nuisance birds from black oil sunflower seeds.

One source provides striped sunflower in 4, 8, and 16 pound bags.

Hulled Sunflower Seed

Sometimes sold as sunflower hearts or sunflower hearts and chips, these seeds are already shelled. These are often preferred by apartment dwellers and others with a small wildlife area because the birds leave less mess behind.

You can buy from eBirdseed.com bagged sunflower hearts from 8 to 60 pounds. Hearts mixed with chips are available in 20 and 40 pound amounts.

Dwarf Sunflowers

If you'd like try your hand at growing sunflower seeds, consider one of the dwarf sunflowers that grow well in containers. Some dwarf sunflowers include Ballad, Big Smile, Elite, Firecracker, Incredible Superior, Music Box, Pacino, Pastel Babies, Sunspot, Zebulon, and much more.