57075 Safflower Seed Wild Bird Food, 5 Pound (Pack of 1)

Third time I've ordered these seeds. Birds love it, squirrels don't!

My birdie buddies love this seed & the squirrels do not!! So, it’s a winner. I like the zipper closure on the bag - closes the bag securely without needing a clip.

My first day with a bird feeder and I already had flocks of birds and have every single day since. I’ve even had family members ask which feed I used because of how many birds I’m getting!

Nice seed at a good price. Cardinals and similar birds like it in a tray feeder that squirrels USED TO devastate. Arrived in undamaged box but with one of two bags torn. It looked like rough handling and a sharp corner produced an L-shaped rip in the bag.

Great value.birds love it.no waste

Amazon asks me to rate Wagner's Wild Bird Food on freshness and flavor, but I haven't tasted it and the birds do not voice much of an opinion. Safflower seed has been hard to find anywhere in early 2022, so I was happy to find it here. The price is right, the packaging is good, and the seed has no concerning appearances or smells. The birds here seem to take it just fine. (They were accustomed to Kaytee, but they voiced no complaints about changes in terroir, nose, palate or mouthfeel. It's a good vintage, but I wouldn't lay it down for more than a year.) Squirrels continue to show no interest. Here's the thing about squirrels and other unwanted visitors: your first line of defense is the shape and placement of your feeder. Forget about paying a premium for fancy mechanical devices; I've never found one that squirrels couldn't outsmart. Nevertheless, there is no point in making it easy for them. Don't give them anything that is easy to climb, jump to or hang from. Secondly, avoid seed mixes. Birds' natural behavior is to flick away any seeds that do not meet their particular culinary preferences. This sends excessive amounts of seed to the ground, where it will attract a few ground-feeding birds like mourning doves but also a lot of mammalian varmints that you would probably not welcome. I might occasionally add some nyjer seed to the tray, which does not seem to encourage flicking but does seem to appeal to wrens – an enjoyable and useful species. In the winter I place suet in a separate nearby feeder, which attracts woodpeckers of all sorts, bluebirds(!), thrashers and a few others. When grackles return in the spring, they will quickly decimate the suet, so I trade out that feeder for a hummingbird feeder. Two feeders at a time – that's it. (I've got mulberry trees and juniper trees that attract flocks of cedar waxwings a couple of times a year – a delight!) Third, safflower seed, in contrast to almost every other seed I have tried, does seem to be significantly less interesting to squirrels. I've read that it has a sour taste that mammals do not like but birds do not notice. Cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, finches and whoever is in the neighborhood seem to like it just fine. Fourth, back to the physical feeder. I have found that a design with a narrow (½”) lip on the seed tray, blocked elsewhere by the seed reservoir, keeps larger perching birds (e.g., blackbirds, grackles, starlings, robins, blue jays, etc.) off the feeder. I have also found that adding an ounce or two of fresh seed to the tray each day, placing only a few small rocks in the seed reservoir for stability in the wind, is a useful strategy. Of course the seed sometimes runs out during the day. Intermittent reinforcement has been shown to be the strongest incentive for birds to keeping coming back to see if seed has been added.

The squirrels don't touch this birdseed which is great. Mainly attracts finches who gobble it up. Cardinals and chickadees are the other most common visitors. But other birds do enjoy it as well and it is nice that the squirrels leave it alone. The bag is easily resealable with velcro.

The sweet birds love it and the bully birds hate it. It also keeps squirrels away. It took the house sparrows awhile to get used to after eating black oil sunflower seed for so long, but they got used to it eventually and eat it everyday now. The doves, finches, and chickadees were cool with it immediately. It’s a regular purchase for us now.