Can birds eat all nuts
Nuts other than peanuts will be an amazing source of protein, thus are seen to provide wild birds energy for foraging in the winter while replacing lost body fat.
Birds can eat all nuts other than the usual peanuts, including but not limited to: Brazil nuts, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds. None can have flavors or special coatings as it means it has salt content, which is deadly to birds. Extract nuts out of their shells so all nut-eating birds can eat.
Birds can eat all nuts in their natural state, with no flavoring, no special coatings or if they've been roasted.
Salt is highly toxic to wild birds so can lead to trouble if you insist on offering your backyard birds nuts prepared for people. If nuts are roasted or have any coatings this is a tell-tale sign of high in salt nuts.
Not many common backyard birds can get in a nut still in its shell, with the exception of Blue Jays or Chickadees who like to break into the softer than normal shell of a peanut.
Shells belonging to walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, pistachios and cashews can be fed to wild birds, while baring in mind most of them must be out of the shell.
Break each and every nut out of its shell while carefully discarding it to prevent choking.
How you can offer nuts to wild birds is out in the open with no help of a peanut bird feeder or similar wire mesh feeder.
Open dish or platform bird feeders can keep nuts contained within a safe environment, with any nuts fed to ground eating birds on the lawn - if only its seen and quickly eaten.
Other kinds of nuts don't last as well as wild bird peanuts thus are seen to rot far sooner than later.
If your wire mesh bird feeder for peanuts is frequently occupied you can use to it to store some other nuts, rather than using to many which will waste.
Birds can eat all natural nuts
As a rule, wild birds can eat all nuts providing its in its natural form, which can be readily available from health food isles in supermarket stores.
To use other nuts for wild birds, a safer option to guarantee they don't contain any natural toxins or harmful ingredients that is added or when its processed - is to buy at pet stores as bird feed promoted for wild bird.
With that in mind to offer wild birds anything other than specialist peanuts won't be 'sold as for wild birds' on its packaging.
Keep wild birds safe by offering any nut that can include macadamia nuts, or widely available pecans, plus almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios and of course cashews.
Cashew are a favorite nut of mine and many others I expect, though there's no need to worry about being tempting to eat them to yourself as unsalted cashew nuts in its natural form are quite bland tasting.
You can offer cashew nuts to wild birds but never the salted, roasted kind for people.
Prioritize all kinds of nuts in fall and especially well into winter as all wild birds need to replace lost energy and fat with this highly nutritious food.
No salt or flavors
If you think you can offer wild birds a handful of any nuts you have to hand right now, you will be very much mistaken, with a major risk to their health.
Nuts for people are usually blanched in salted water then roasted in the oven to turn them slightly brown.
What you must know about salt, is if fed to birds in small amounts it can make them ill, whereas a large quantity of salt can kill birds as its toxic, thus damaging to their liver.
If peanuts, cashews or other nuts such as pistachios are roasted then they most certainly will contain salt.
Never feed backyard birds roasted nuts as a high amount of salt is guaranteed to be present. The only way you can give wild birds roasted nuts is if they are promoted as such within a wild bird peanut pack.
Why else you cannot feed birds human nuts is that people nuts, or should I say mostly peanuts - are usually coated in flavors - including chocolate which again is a dangerous food to give birds.
Birds don't have any taste buds thus can appreciate flavored food with no harm caused, and where spicy peppers can be fed to wild birds with no consequences - chili, BBQ or plain roasted nuts are sure to be made with salt in the ingredients.
No flavors or roasted nuts can be offered to wild birds as its going to include salt.
Unshelled nuts a must
Its all well and good offering wild birds all kinds of healthy, protein rich nuts when in fact they can't get to them if left in their shell.
What birds can open nuts still in their shell are the birds that have a beak developed to open shells for nuts and even seeds; which can include Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, many Finches and Grosbeaks.
Seeing as you won't be offering most of these birds nuts of any kind, you'll need to be sure the nuts are accessible to many other species.
I will say though Chickadees and Blue Jays can be seen to open up the soft peanut shell, either fed to them on a surface or in a shelled peanut bird feeder hanging up.
Other birds such as Wrens, Clark's Nutcracker of course, many of the Woodpeckers, Gray Catbird, and Warblers will prefer nuts of any kind served up unshelled.
Its up to you to pop out the nutcrackers to proceed to break open all nuts, whilst carefully discarding the shells to prevent a choking hazard.
Large nuts such as walnuts or Brazil nuts can be broken up into small pieces to assist birds that feed on them - but there's certainly no harm in doing this with all nuts.
Nuts in moderation only
When serving up nuts other then specialist wild bird peanuts to birds you'd need to do so in moderation.
OK nuts can be high in fat which isn't an issue as birds know when to say no; as they prioritize other foods as part of the diet seasonally - such as more nuts and insects in wintertime with fruits in summer - whereas seeds are fed to birds all year.
Nuts other than peanuts won't last as well when fed to birds outdoors, thus are seen to rot far sooner than what you are used to.
Be sure nut eating, and therefore seed-eating birds are readily available in your yard as to not waste these expensive healthy nut varieties.
What you can do is not treat a random mix of nuts like you would with wild bird peanuts, when offering only a few nuts until they are eating is best - then serving up more walnuts, cashews or hazelnuts to keep the nut availability going.
Nuts can be offered to backyard birds in spring through summertime, while remaining mindful of nuts taken back to fledgling in the nest can become a choking hazard.
Nut eating backyard birds
You know what, the backyard birds that eat a varied amount of seeds as part of their diet tend to be those bird species that will eat all other nuts out of your yard.
Birds that eat nuts in your yard can include: Blue Jay, Wrens, Clark's Nutcracker, Downy Woodpecker, Golden-Fronted Woodpecker, Gray Catbird, Hairy Woodpecker, Orange Crowned Warbler, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Red-Headed Woodpecker, Steller's Jay, Tufted Titmouse and many others.
What birds are seen to eat peanuts the most will be Blue Jays, Woodpeckers and the Turfed Titmouse.
Of whom, all are fully capable of using a hanging wire mesh peanut bird feeder, to which is where wild bird peanuts are kept in for birds to feed off - with the Blue Jay preferring to eat on an open top platform feeder or on the ground.
Certainly no shortage of the common backyard birds willing to eat all kinds of nuts, and if you get any doubters - simply mix up all kinds of nuts with seed mixes so they don't waste.
Not all backyard birds are bird feeder birds, thus to offer nuts out of bird feeder will be the best cause of action.
Many are ground feeding birds thus are only seen to forage on the lawn where nuts can be thrown over. Similarly an open top platform bird feeder can be used to keep it tidy, while avoiding nuts rotting quickly on the ground.
Nuts of importance
With the many things you can offer wild birds that are highly nutritious, a mix of less conventional, yet more expensive nut mixes offered to birds in our backyards is possible.
Whilst wild bird peanuts remain the safest option to use, as they have a longer history with birds who associate them more as food than other kinds of nuts.
How you feed peanuts to birds can be replicated when using others types of nuts, only larger nuts have to be crushed up to make them easier to bite and therefore ingest.
Peanuts always come as is with no salt or roasted options, thus are very healthy for wild birds to eat.
Other random nut options are possible providing they follow the footsteps of peanuts in that there's no harmful coatings or salt content.
Peanuts continue to be one of the four best things you can offer wild birds, with seed mixes, suet and dried mealworms being the others.
No other type of wild bird food has so many alternatives than a peanut; with walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios and Brazil nuts recognizable to us, yet is a fun experiment to provide for birds in the yard.
OK there's many varieties of seeds for birds yet other kinds of nuts can be safe for people.
To summarize
If birds can safely eat an unsalted, no flavors or coated peanuts out of their shells, so too can birds eat all kinds of natural nuts.
No limit to the kind of nuts you can feed to birds, with Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews and pistachios included and many more.
Difference being is that they can't be roasted or salted and must always be out of their shell.
While cashews, pistachios and walnuts are among my favorites, and so to for many other people; the good thing is you can't be tempted to eat them as they are tasteless with no salt or roasted flavor.
Birds can eat all nuts providing its as bland as can be, available out of the healthy food or pet isle in supermarkets, or bought from specialist pet stores.
Nuts must be offered out of their shells to be made available to all birds, or else it will limit what birds can feed on them. And you sure don't want to waste a good opportunity when it comes along whenever birds are interested... yet can't get past the shell.
Nuts of all other kinds should be in moderation to avoid waste of course with winter a priority as birds need to re-store lost fat and energy with peanuts and other nuts.
To be safe its better to offer peanuts with the other nut mixes to be sure birds can continue to feed on what their used to in the yard.
Many backyard birds eat peanuts with many other kinds in the wild, thus are happy to eat your variety to hand.
Offer a large quantity of wild bird peanuts in the usual wire mesh peanut bird feeder, with other nuts offered out in the open as they will rot sooner than specialist peanuts.
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