Can wild birds eat Pumpkin seeds
It is safe to feed wild birds pumpkin seeds as it is a seed after all, nothing to know first hand as you can go ahead and offer a handful of this nutritious seed out in the yard.
Birds can eat Pumpkin seeds as a replacement or in additional to their bird seed mix. Distinctive large green seed out of its shell must be fed to birds, whilst avoiding the in its white shell kind. Store-bought pumpkin seeds make it easier on you, with seeds extracted out of a real pumpkin must first be dried out.
My first time trying pumpkin seeds were actually baked into my recent Subway Multi Grain sandwich, of which it included pumpkin seeds and what I believe to be Flax seeds - or I could be mixing it up with Chia seeds.
Anyway, I now know this seeds is perfectly acceptable for our backyard seed-eating birds, as I've have first hand knowledge of it.
Unusual thing to say I know, but its nice to know I can recommend a new kind of wild bird seed with full confidence.
Our common backyard birds will probably love the shelled pumpkin seeds more because its soft with no awkward shell to bite through.
Shelled seeds have their place but when feeding them to backyard birds, it can restrict what birds can and cannot eat them.
Super healthy food for us as well as wild birds with it mostly containing Vitamins and Fiber; which birds can benefit more if fed to them in winter, to fatten them up with any weight loss when colder months come around.
No need to wait until Halloween to pick out pumpkin seeds for birds either; although if you choose to, do wait until the seeds have dried out before putting them out in the yard.
Whilst the best type of wild bird seed can relate to peanuts, niger or sunflower seeds, it can be a lot of fun to experiment with additional seeds which don't often get promoted as for wild birds... when seeds like the Chia or pumpkin seed are safe and fun to use.
Distinctive green seed can be eaten
Incredibly, I just eaten this seed only an hour ago of writing this piece, thus I have fond memories of how this seed tastes and its rather pleasant soft texture.
If you didn't know a pumpkin seed what people would bite into would be the de-shelled kind - of which you can expect this rather large seed to be green - whilst making sure it stands out among a seed mix for birds or people.
Big as it is this large seed can be fed to all seed-eating birds outdoors, with the likely procedure for birds to eat it, would likely end in some waste.
Distinctively green in color thus any pumpkin seeds added to a normal wild bird seed mix, can allow you to measure its popularity.
I do believe this nut flavored seed to go down well with most seed-eating birds, as well as any birds who mostly eat vegetable matter like nuts in the wild.
Birds can eat pumpkin seeds with no health issues or warnings to abide by. Its a perfectly safe seed to feed your backyard birds, along with any other type of seed you intend to feed them.
Store-brought vs picked out of Pumpkin
You have two choices when it comes to feeding your wild birds a handful of tasty pumpkin seeds. Which will include seeds bought de-shelled within a sealed bag - or only feed wild birds pumpkin seeds out of an actual pumpkin.
Come October when huge pumpkins become available in-store, its important to remember, all the goop thrown away to make your scary pumpkin - can indeed be fished out for your wild birds.
What you will do with these seeds is first dry them out to make them safe for wild birds to ingest, then feed them to birds in an area of the year where they mostly frequent.
Fresh pumpkin seeds will be in their shell thus can keep many bird species from eating them.
Do continue to offer pumpkin seeds in their shell although there's an option for you to take them out of their shell individually, which I can imagine will take forever.
With no time to waste you can provide a handful of de-shelled pumpkin seeds via store-bought pumpkin seeds which will appear green - whereas pumpkin seeds still in their shell will appear white.
Nutty taste, soft texture goodness
To be honest I will find it hard to feed my wild birds a handful of my own pumpkin seeds, as I have become quite fond of this seed.
Reasons why is that I first tried it on top of a Subway Multi Grain sandwich, in which I ended up picking most of the pumpkin seeds out of the bread before I actually took a bite, as I liked them so much.
I loved them that much because of the incredible nutty taste a pumpkin seed has, whilst being very surprised at its peanut-like softness in its bite.
Your wild birds are therefore going to love pumpkin seeds as the taste and texture is similar to their sunflower seeds or peanuts they would normally eat at the bird feeder.
Full of goodness too with this seed offering your wild birds fiber and protein, along with additional vitamins. Nutrients such as this are required more in wintertime as birds tend to lose body fat as they forage, those seeds like this will help them re-store it.
Pumpkin seeds can be offered to wild birds all year round if bought in store, because as you'll remember - actual pumpkins you can extract their seeds out of - are very rarely made available all year, except in October when Halloween comes around.
Fed to birds out of shell
While its unlikely you'll end up feeding your common backyard birds pumpkin seeds in their white shell, its very important you only feed birds when the pumpkin seed is out of its shell, so will be green.
Shelled seeds can be troublesome for many seed-eating birds although you can expect many of the Finches, including Grosbeaks plus Northern Cardinals to bite open shelled pumpkin seeds... as their shortened bill is design to.
Feed birds pumpkin seeds out of its shell - so it will appear green and not white - so you'd have no difficulty getting birds to eat them.
Seeds in shells do last longer when offered to birds outdoors, or indeed if the seed is put in a bird feeder - but that won't be the case with pumpkin seeds.
Shell of pumpkin seeds can be eaten, only you don't want to restrict this seed to a few birds only by keeping them on.
The idea of feeding pumpkin seeds to wild birds is so its available to all, whether you put them on top of a railing or outdoor table, or instead choose to put a few pumpkin seeds in an actual seed bird feeder.
To summarize up
Pumpkin seeds are an absolute favorite of mine because of the softness along with its delicious nutty taste which is really yummy... so I just know wild birds will love it.
Large seed type which helps provide this seed more flavor birds can really enjoy.
Pumpkin seeds out of its shell it must be so it will appear green in color, whereby if its white then you know the shell is still attached.
Birds can eat a shelled pumpkin seed, only its better to offer it out of the shell to not risk deterring birds.
Options can include buying the seeds in a sealed bag which I recommend, but there's certainly nothing stopping you picking out pumpkin seeds out of a real pumpkin near Halloween, only a bit of preparation is needed.
You must first dry out pumpkin seeds if extracting them out of a pumpkin before feeding to birds - whereby store-bought pumpkin seeds are ready to be eaten.
No confusing this distinctive large green seed with others, with an option to only feed birds a few spare pumpkin seeds, but they can help bulk up a wild bird seed mix.
Prioritize pumpkin seeds to feed wild birds in winter especially, as the fatty contents can help re-store lost body weight in colder months. Although bear in mind seed-eating birds can be fed on fresh pumpkin seeds all your long.