Yes, sunflower hearts are good for birds! Sunflower hearts (that is, sunflower seeds with their husks removed) provide essential nutrition and calories, which is particularly important during winter but can be helpful all year round. A wide variety of birds enjoy eating sunflower hearts, so if you put some out in your garden, you should find that they disappear very quickly!

Read on for more reasons to feed sunflower hearts to your garden birds.

Sunflower hearts are high in calories.

Wild birds require high-calorie foods like sunflower hearts (which are rich in oil and protein) to survive cold spells and keep themselves warm. In the UK, this is relevant throughout the year because of our famously unpredictable weather — you never know when the temperature is going to plummet!

Sunflower hearts are easy to eat.

Whole sunflower seeds are also high in calories, but sunflower hearts have the added benefit of being easier for birds to eat. Some birds struggle to remove the shells from sunflower seeds, so why not do the job for them and put out sunflower hearts that have already had their shells removed?

Put simply: by offering shell-free sunflower seeds, you’re enabling a wider variety of birds to access the health benefits of sunflower hearts!

Sunflower hearts make less mess.

On a related note, sunflower hearts aren’t just good for birds – they’re also good for your garden! The shells (or husks) from sunflower seeds will often end up littering the area beneath your feeding table or bird feeder. This can be messy to look at and could also potentially attract pests.

Rather than wasting time cleaning up all of those shells, go with sunflower hearts. These are great for staying tidy (which is why they’re a key ingredient in our best-selling Tidy Garden Mix™).

Sunflower hearts are perfect for combining with other seeds.

Just like humans, birds require a varied diet. Sunflower hearts are good for birds, but an even better option is to offer a seed mix that combines sunflower hearts with other nutritious ingredients. This way, birds can enjoy the healthy fat and energy provided by sunflower hearts, while still getting vital nutrients and minerals from other seeds.

By including sunflower hearts in your seed mixes, you are helping birds to enjoy a high-energy, healthy diet!

Ready to start serving sunflower hearts?

As we’ve established, sunflower hearts are very good for birds when they are enjoyed as part of a varied diet. High-calorie bird feeds like sunflower hearts help to keep our feathered friends in robust health, especially during the winter and other cold periods.

If you want to add some sunflower hearts to your bird feeding station, we’ve got some great options for you here at Really Wild Bird Food. We offer premium sunflower hearts, as well as sunflower heart chips for smaller birds and fledglings. Use the buttons below to shop healthy sunflower hearts for your garden birds.

Premium Sunflower Hearts   Sunflower Heart Chips

Both sunflower hearts and sunflower seeds appear in many bird food mixes and provide good nutrition for a wide variety of bird species. But which should you be putting in your feeders: hearts or seeds?

Let's find out.

Sunflower Hearts vs Sunflower Seeds: What's the difference?

Sunflower seeds have hard shells, which birds typically remove in order to eat the seed inside. Sunflower hearts are simply sunflower seeds that have had their shells removed in advance. Whether you buy seeds or hearts, the sunflower heart is the part that your garden birds will actually eat.

Order now from Really Wild Bird Food – we offer FREE DELIVERY on all sunflower seeds and hearts!

Sunflower Hearts   Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are packed with many key nutrients (like iron, magnesium and vitamins A, B, C and D) so they're always a great choice for bird tables and hanging feeders. But the question remains: is it better to offer sunflower hearts or sunflower seeds?

The Case for Sunflower Hearts

Many birds are not able to de-shell sunflower seeds, but still enjoy eating what's inside them. Sunflower hearts give these birds easy access to delicious, nutritious treats that they would not have been able to access otherwise!

Since sunflower hearts are such a popular food source and easy to access, you'll find that they attract a wide variety of wild birds to your garden. They're a great, versatile option if you aren't sure what kinds of birds live in your area.

Sunflower hearts are much less messy than sunflower seeds, too. With sunflower seeds, you'll likely end up with a small pile of shells beneath your feeder. These can build up and turn into mulch over time. Sunflower hearts don't have shells, helping to prevent this issue! Sunflower hearts are a high energy, less mess option if you would prefer not to have shells left in your garden.

SEE ALSO: No Mess Bird Food

The Case for Sunflower Seeds

At this point, you might be thinking that sunflower hearts are the better option every time—after all, they make life easier for the birds, and they don't leave a mess on your lawn. Why does anyone buy sunflower seeds with the shells on?

Well, the shell-on seeds do offer a few benefits of their own. Firstly, whole sunflower seeds can only be eaten by birds who are able to de-shell them; this may seem like a negative thing, but if you are specifically trying to attract these birds and you don't want their food to be stolen by competitors, sunflower seeds may be preferable to sunflower hearts.

What other aces do sunflower seeds have up their sunflower sleeves? To answer that question, ask yourself why sunflower seeds have shells on them to begin with.

The answer is simple: to protect the contents. Sunflower seed shells with no cracks provide a barrier against damp and mould; nature's protective coating. So sunflower seeds (of which there are black and striped varieties) may be preferable in periods of extreme weather, particularly wet weather where sunflower hearts may go soggy or really cold weather where the hearts can freeze. There is also an argument that black sunflower seeds are nature's bounty and that small seed eating birds should be working for their food in the most natural way possible. Garden birds will naturally visit a feeder, remove a seed and take it to the safety of a nearby tree or bush to then enjoy it. Offering sunflower hearts in a hanging feeder may just be too easy! and birds will spend more time actually on the feeders, which is lovely to watch but can potentially increase the risk of disease transfer and also of sparrohawks swooping in on pre-occupied garden birds.

Which is better: sunflower hearts or sunflower seeds?

Sunflower hearts are generally more popular than sunflower seeds because more birds can eat them and they leave less mess. However, as we've discussed, there are still some good reasons to go with sunflower seeds instead!

Whichever you choose to use in your garden, Really Wild Bird Food can help. We offer a wide range of quality bird feeds, many of which are grown on our very own farm in Hampshire—and we offer FREE DELIVERY on all orders that include bird seed!

Sunflower Hearts   Sunflower Seeds

Image source: reallywildbirdfood.co.uk/straight-seeds/sunflower-heart-chips/shc

Sunflower seeds are a highly nutritious snack loved by all manner of wild birds! Sunflower seeds are packed with a wide variety of valuable nutrients including iron, magnesium, and vitamins A, B, C, and D.

Sunflower seeds are also a great source of healthy oils and fats which are great for helping wild birds maintain a healthy weight, especially during the difficult winter months.

As well as being very nutritious, sunflower seeds are also super yummy! Wild birds can’t get enough of their delicious taste! If you put sunflower seeds out in your garden, these are just a few of the wild birds you might expect to pay you a visit: