Black Sunflower Seeds also known as black oil seeds are thin-skinned, cost effective, packed with oil & protein, and a low cost alternative to peanuts, that provide wild birds in your garden with a high energy diet. Sunflower seeds are classified according to the husks of the seed or shells, and if the husks are solid black, the seeds are referred to as black oil sunflower seeds.
Black sunflower seeds contain approximately 27% protein and 40% unsaturated oils, that provide energy and a waterproof feather coating, that birds excrete using their oil glands to spread the oil over their feathers to keep them dry, warm and buoyant.
Black sunflower seeds are an excellent food source as almost all wild birds that visit your garden will readily eat them, but are particularly relished by finches, nuthatches and tits. The only drawback from feeding black sunflower seeds are the husks, but you can always feed birds sunflower hearts that are black sunflower seeds minus the outer husks.
Nutthatches often store black oil sunflower seeds under tree bark or in crevices like squirrels, creating a hidden food store to get them through the coldest winter months!
The husk of the black sunflower seed is thin, consequently it is easily broken by wild birds, even those with small beaks. Once opened, birds can eat the heart of seed that contains more nutrients that any other seed variety, a higher ratio of nutmeat to shell, is high in fibre and contains essential minerals and vitamins such as; vitamin E, biotin, choline, thiamin and zinc.
Black sunflower seeds are an oil crop, that are pressed into sunflower oil for cooking and used in many blended wild bird foods, because of the high levels of beneficial nutrients relative to cost, making them the seed of choice by many wild bird customers!
Black sunflower seed is versatile and can be fed to your wild birds that visit your garden using any seed feeder, a bird table or simply on the ground.
Black oil sunflower seeds are eaten by the following wild bird species: Blue Tit, Brambling, Blackbird, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Green Finch, Sparrow, Nuthatch, Robin, Siskins, Song Thrush, Starling, Swallow, Tree Sparrow, Wren, Yellow Hammer.
