Maeve

Maeve
My question: Will birds prefer homemade bird seed mix or store bought bird seed mix?

=Background Information:=

sunflower seeds
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Homemade-Bird-Food

Hypothesis:

My hypothesis: That birds will prefer the homemade bird seed mix because
===Homemade birdseed has more variety. It also has more nuts and fruits which are high energy foods, and when its cold it takes a lot of energy to fly and birds need energy so the birdseed with more fat and protein will be more fulfilling for the birds.===

Methods and Materials:
===I have two of the same bird feeder one is dark red, one is dark green. My bird seed recipe consists of raisins, peanuts, walnuts, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds. Each bird feeder holds 4 cups of mixed walnuts and peanuts, 1/2 cup sun flower seeds, 1/2 cup raisins, and a tablespoon cracked corn.=== ===NOTE: on day 4 a squirrel broke one of the bird perches and feeding areas off the green bird feeder. I ducked taped it up when i refilled the feeders so none would spill out(no birdseed spilled out when it was broken either). I used checkered duck tape because its the only kind i had to make it fair i covered up the same area on the other feeder with the same tape.===

=(pictures)=

===*the original height of bird seed in the feeders when they were filled was 13" each time the bird feeders were filled i filled them and measured the height of seed it always started at 13". After that each day i measured how many inches had been eaten away, it was a very effective way of measuring the amount of seed eaten.===

I filled up each bird feeder with 4 1/2 cups each time it needed refilling, I refilled the bird feeders when they had 1 inch or less of bird seed in the feeder.

[[image:maeves full green feeder day 1.jpg width="242" height="315" caption="homemade day 1"]][[image:maeves full red feeder day 1.jpg width="279" height="369" caption="storebought day 1"]]
height of seed in feeder: 5.75" height of seed in feeder: 11.5" picture taken at: 5:17 pm picture taken at: 5:16

Results and Data:
day 1: more homemade bird seed was eaten then store bought birdseed day 2 more homemade bird seed was eaten day 3: more homemade bird seed was eaten day 4: more homemade bird seed was eaten day 5: more homemade bird seed was eaten day 6: more homemade bird seed was eaten day 7: more homemade bird seed was eaten



The store bought feeder was refilled only once during the whole week on day 4.


As you can see it is obvious the birds liked the homemade bird seed better like I thought they would.

green height everyday: red height everyday:

= Discussion: = === Please note i do have two dogs and a cat(though that didn't seem to bother the birds) and construction was going on at my house on some of the days. Also I did notice squirrels near my feeder a few times. ===

A few notes:

 * On day 1 I noticed a squirrel by the feeder at 4:00 pm
 * I observed many birds coming to this feeder, I noticed a red headed woodpecker come to this feeder 6 different times in one day.
 * Under the green bird feeder there were sunflower seed shells and lots of bird poop but no bird seed ever fell out of the feeder.