Bird Food

Safflower Seed

A small white seed that cardinals love and most squirrels leave alone. The deterrent effect is real, regional, and not permanent, which is worth understanding before you switch.

Safflower is a small, hard, chalk-white seed, roughly the size of a grain of rice, from the thistle relative Carthamus tinctorius. It has a bitter coating, and that coating does most of the work: the northern cardinal eats it without complaint, while gray squirrels, grackles and starlings usually leave it alone.

That combination makes safflower the closest thing to a selective seed on the market. It does not out-compete black oil sunflower on cost or calories, and it is not a substitute for a properly baffled pole. What it does is change who shows up.

What follows covers how strong the deterrent effect really is, which birds take safflower and which will not, how to convert a feeder without losing your regulars for a month, and the situations where safflower is simply the wrong tool.

The squirrel claim, examined#

The claim you see on the bag is that squirrels will not eat safflower. The accurate version is that most gray squirrels prefer almost anything else, and will leave a safflower feeder alone while a sunflower feeder exists anywhere nearby.

Three qualifications matter:

• It is regional and individual. Reports of squirrels eating safflower are common enough that you should treat rejection as likely rather than guaranteed. Fox squirrels and red squirrels seem less deterred than grays.
• Hunger overrides preference. In late winter, or in a yard where safflower is the only food on offer, squirrels are far more likely to work at it.
• Learning happens. A squirrel that tries safflower repeatedly and finds calories in it will keep coming back. Households that switch to safflower and get relief for two seasons before the squirrels return are describing a normal outcome, not a defective bag.

Chipmunks are less deterred than squirrels, which surprises people; chipmunks at the feeder covers that separately. So use safflower as one layer. The layer that actually decides the outcome is geometry: a smooth pole, a baffle, and 10 feet (3 m) of clear air from the nearest launch point, as set out in how to stop squirrels raiding feeders.

Who eats it and who refuses#

Acceptance is more sharply divided than with sunflower, which is exactly why the seed is useful.

The one loss most people notice is variety. Fill every feeder with safflower and the yard gets quieter and more cardinal-heavy. That is fine if cardinals are the goal, and the wider tactics are in how to attract cardinals.

Switching a feeder over without emptying it#

Birds identify food visually and are conservative about novelty. Dump a feeder of safflower into a yard that has eaten sunflower for two years and it can sit untouched for weeks, at which point most people conclude the seed is defective and go back.

The reliable method is gradual:

1. Week one: roughly three parts black oil sunflower to one part safflower.
2. Week two: half and half.
3. Week three: one part sunflower to three parts safflower.
4. Week four: straight safflower.

Cardinals usually pick it up first. Finches follow. If the feeder is still untouched after a month of pure safflower, the problem is the seed itself rather than the birds, and the smell test below will tell you.

Feeders and flow#

Safflower is small, hard and fairly uniform, so it behaves mechanically like a slightly slower black oil sunflower.

Tube feeders work well. Standard sunflower ports pass safflower without adjustment, though the flow is a touch slower because the seeds are less slippery than oiled sunflower. Short perches on a tube feeder plus safflower is one of the most effective anti-blackbird combinations there is.

Hoppers are the classic safflower feeder, since they give cardinals a surface to stand on. Most hopper feeders run it without trouble.

Trays and platforms suit doves and cardinals, but an open platform feeder will still attract the blackbird flock by sheer visibility even when they end up rejecting the seed. A tray with a mesh floor and no roof also lets safflower get wet, which it tolerates poorly.

Storage, spoilage and cost#

Safflower has a hard shell and a lower oil content than sunflower, so it keeps somewhat better in a sealed bin: three months or so is reasonable in cool, dry conditions.

The catch is in the feeder rather than in the bin. Safflower absorbs water and swells, and wet safflower cakes into a solid plug faster than sunflower does. In a feeder without drainage, the bottom inch turns into a damp brick that blocks the ports. Empty and dry the feeder completely at each refill rather than topping up, and follow the rest of the routine in storing bird seed.

On cost, safflower typically runs somewhat above black oil sunflower per pound and carries less oil per kernel, so cost per usable calorie is clearly higher. Against that, waste drops: fewer birds and fewer mammals means less seed thrown out of the feeder and less taken in bulk. In a yard losing a large share of its sunflower to squirrels and grackles, safflower can end up cheaper in practice than the cheaper seed.

Safflower through the year#

Safflower is not equally useful in every month, and treating it as a year-round staple wastes most of what makes it worth buying.

Its best stretch is late fall through early spring, when squirrels are working hardest, cardinals are pairing and feeding heavily at dawn and dusk, and there is little natural food to compete with. A safflower hopper in January is doing exactly what you bought it for.

Its worst stretch is midsummer. Blackbird and starling flocks disperse to nest, so the species you were excluding are less of a problem anyway, and the heat drives oil-bearing seed rancid faster in the feeder. Many yards do better running smaller quantities of a broader menu through July and August, as covered in summer bird feeding.

Late summer into fall is the moment to reintroduce it, before the blackbird flocks reassemble and while there is still time for birds to relearn the feeder.

Golden safflower, briefly#

A thinner-shelled golden or orange safflower is sold alongside the standard white type. It has more oil, is easier for small-billed birds to open, and is generally accepted faster during a switch.

The trade is straightforward: the easier a seed is to eat, the weaker its filtering effect. Golden safflower gets taken by more species, including some of the blackbirds and house sparrows you may have bought safflower to avoid. Use it if acceptance is the problem, and stick to standard white safflower if exclusion is the problem.

When safflower is the wrong answer#

• Your problem is only squirrels and you have no baffle. Fix the pole first. A baffle works on every seed; safflower works on some squirrels.
• You want maximum species variety. Safflower narrows the guest list by design.
• Goldfinches are your priority. They are unreliable on safflower. Nyjer and sunflower chips serve them far better.
• Your feeder has no drainage. Wet safflower plugs it, and you will spend more time clearing ports than watching birds.

Where it fits, though, it fits well: one hopper or short-perch tube of straight safflower, mounted on a baffled pole within sight of dense cover, and a cardinal pair on it at dusk from October through March.