Sunflower seed, cracked corn, milo.
We recently bought a bag of cheap wild bird seed. It contained mostly milo with some sunflower, cracked corn, and millet mixed in. We should have known better but dumped a scoop of it on top of our platform feeder at Winding Pathways and watched what happened.
Birds swooped right in. Cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, and even a cardinal. They were joined by red-headed woodpeckers. The birds quickly devoured the sunflower seeds, then the corn, and finally the millet. They left the milo untouched.
Birds don’t like milo. Sure, they’ll eat it if they are hungry and there’s nothing else available, but they often leave it uneaten.
Milo is a type of sorghum grown in places too arid for corn. Its seeds are round, reddish, and about the size of a BB. The less expensive a bird seed blend is the more likely it is to have a high percent milo seed.
The very best all-around seed for feeding a diversity of seed-eating birds is black oil sunflower. Many birds like cracked corn, which is inexpensive. Ground feeding birds like doves and juncos love millet, but they just don’t like milo.
I’m so glad you pointed out what a waste of money milo is. It’s just a filler in cheap seed blends and bird lovers would do better to shell out a couple more bucks for seed birds will actually eat. Black oil sunflower, hulled sunflower (no mess from shells but more expensive) and peanut chips/pieces are better choices. Striped sunflower is OK but the shells are more difficult for smaller birds to open. Doves and sparrows like millet and sunflower chips. Finches like nyjer (thistle) and also sunflower chips/ peanut chips.