Cracked corn

Corn can be a fun way to attract birds and other wildlife to your yard.

Want to know the pitfalls of feeding corn to wild birds before you get started?

1. What Wildlife Do You Want?

Feeding backyard birds while dissuading other birds and wildlife can be tricky.

Corn not only attracts backyard birds such as jays and cardinals and game birds like quail and pheasant.

It can also attracts larger wildlife, like raccoons, geese, deer, and bears.

2. May be Toxic Corn

Be careful not to offer toxic corn.

If your corn is covered in red dye, it's seed corn treated with fungicide and is deadly to animals and humans.

Corn can easily become toxic. Aflatoxins are very toxic in small doses. Minimize the risk by not buying or letting corn sit in plastic too long or in high humidity. Beware corn molding and caking up in feeders.

Finely ground corn will turn to mush more quickly than coarse-ground or whole corn.

3. Wrong Form of Corn?

Never offer buttered popcorn or microwave popcorn. It spoils too easily.

Corn comes in different forms. Use the wrong form, and you won't see the bird you want to see. Cracked (semi-ground) corn works better for small birds.

Corn on the cob

• dried whole corn -- favored by jays, pigeons, game birds, and squirrels
• finely ground corn -- quickly turns to mush; small songbirds like juncos
• medium-ground corn -- juncos, finches, towhees, sparrows, thrashers, blackbirds, doves, grackles, and starlings
• coarse-ground corn -- blackbirds, doves, grackles, starlings; larger birds
• compressed nuggets -- for squirrels only

Certain experiments indicate birds favor finely-ground corn rather than coarsely-ground corn, but they really prefer black-oil sunflower seed.