Black Sunflower Seeds also known as black oil sunflower seeds are thin-skinned, cost effective, packed with oil & protein, and a low cost alternative to peanuts, that provide birds in your garden with a high energy diet. Black sunflower seeds are classified according to the husks of the seed and if the shells are solid black, the seeds are referred to as black oil sunflowers or BOSS seeds by bird food importers.
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 over their feathers to keep them dry, warm and buoyant.
Black oil 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 sunflowers are the husks, but you can always feed your birds sunflower hearts that are essentially the black seeds minus the outer shells.
Although black sunflowers are cheaper than hearts, if you purchase black or striped seeds without the husks removed only half the weight approximately is edible, an important consideration if you purchase your bird supplies in bulk to save money and seldom discussed online or pointed out to customers for fear of loosing sales.
Nuthatches often store black sunflower under tree bark or in crevices like squirrels, creating a hidden food store for nuts and seeds to get them through the coldest winter months when food is scarce.
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, that's high in fibre and contains approximately 560 calories per 100 grams, but also essential minerals and vitamins such as; vitamin E, biotin, choline, thiamin and zinc.
Black sunflower seeds are an oil crop, that are also 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!
Some of our bird customers are also horse owners and supplement their diet with black sunflowers, by mixing the seed in with feed for a nice shiny coat and to improve hoof condition, in preference to oil as the seed contains essential fatty acids and other beneficial nutrients.
Please feed black oil sunflowers only to your horse, rather than inferior striped sunflower seeds, as a horse's digestive system cannot break and absorb the nutrients in the seed as the husks are thicker and tougher.
Providing owners do not exceed approximately one cup per day, black sunflower seed can be fed without any weight gain, but if you want to increase your horse's weight it must be fed in larger quantities, for example two cups per day or more and this may need to be adjusted to take account of an horses individual needs.
Are black oil sunflower seeds higher in nutrition?
We only sell high quality sunflower seeds, that are higher in beneficial nutrients instead of the cheap inferior confectionary seeds that are used in food production, sold by some online sellers that have been selected and correctly harvested to produce the maximum oil content, found ONLY in black oil sunflowers that are also available without the husks for customer convenience to leave just the tasty edible heart, saving you valuable time clearing up after your birds.
Sunflower Hearts are unfortunately more expensive, but are husk free and used by many keen gardeners, as they are extremely easy for birds to eat and sold in economical bulk bags with Free UK Mainland Delivery that are produced by our suppliers using black oil seeds instead of de-hulled medium or large striped sunflower seeds that are often substituted by bird food suppliers as they are cheaper!
However, if you don't mind sweeping up the seed husks, black sunflower is inexpensive, 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.
What birds like black sunflower seeds?
Black sunflower is popular with seed eating wild bird species that have short, thick conical beaks for cracking seeds and grains open, such as 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.
