116
The birds don't like the corn kernels in my bird feeder so they pick them out and now I have corn growing
(hilariouschaos.com)
I have a bird feeder in front of my house and I fill it up with this generic bird seed that has many different kinds of seeds. I’ve watched the birds come up there and eat but then they take the corn kernels and toss them out. A bunch of the corn has fallen on the ground and now I have corn growing!
Used to work for a birdseed store, no joke, that was actually the main focus. Corn takes a lot of energy to digest apparently, in terms of birdseed. Certain birds will eat it if there is nothing else, but they’re more likely to go after other things first. If I remember correctly, Midwesterners had the best chance of having birds eat corn out of their birdseed (I’m US-based, so can’t speak to other places). Of course that makes sense; that’s where we grow corn, so it’s no shock that there are birds there that will eat it.
The other thing to watch out for in generic mixes is milo seed. It is a small round ball with a dot, bigger than millet. Ground feeders (such as doves) will eat millet and digest it, but milo will go right through their system undigested and then sprout. It’s a cheap filler.