White proso millet is actually eaten in my yard by many native U.S. species of birds including Spotted Towhees, Juncos, Song Sparrows, Lincoln?s Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, Golden-crowned Sparrows, California Quail, and Mourning Doves among others. The seed that is in many commercial mixes that birds don?t seem very interested in is Milo (also called Sorghum); the round, hard, fairly large brown seed. It is eaten more frequently in the southwest and southeast where it is grown commercially and birds are probably more exposed to it. The bird seed mix I buy for spreading on raised platforms is actually a Dove & Quail mix and contains, White proso millet, red millet, safflower seed, and wheat. Everything gets eaten. Seed in my hanging feeders is reserved for the very popular Black-oil Sunflower and thistle.



If you search on google for White proso millet and bird feeding, you?ll find that it is probably one of the most popular seeds to feed for small seed eating birds like our native sparrows that don?t have the beak strength to effectively open sunflower seeds with the ease or speed that finches, grosbeaks, etc., do. Here is a link to one article on white proso millet (https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-white-proso-millet-386572).





Jeff Kozma



Yakima



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of ck park
Sent: Thursday, March 2, 2017 6:06 PM
To: Wally Davis <wallydavis3 at gmail.com>
Cc: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Birdseed



Can't speak for everyone, but "birdseed" as sold in a lot of places around here is millet, and I can't think of any birds in the northwet that are remotely interested in the stuff. Sunflower, suet, black niger, peanuts, fresh fruit, they love the stuff. Millet? not so much...




00 caren
ParkGallery.org <http://ParkGallery.org>
george davis creek, north fork



On Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 4:10 PM, Wally Davis <wallydavis3 at gmail.com <mailto:wallydavis3 at gmail.com> > wrote:

I run through about 10 lbs of sunflower seeds a week and a cake of suet a day. The sunflowers caused me to build a feeder that holds 5 gallons of seed and I hang out 6 blocks of suet at a time. Mostly chickadees, towhees, Steller?s jays, and 5 species of woodpeckers. This year I thought I?d try birdseed and bought a feeder that hold about a pint. The birds are largely uninterested and it takes almost 2 months to empty the pint of birdseed. I live in a rural area with cedar woodlands and open areas consisting of brush as well as my yard. I was wondering if anyone else has observed that birdseed isn?t eaten?



Wally Davis

Snohomish


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