American Goldfinches and some other small seed-eating birds readily feed on sunflower kernels, but their small beaks aren’t made to open larger sunflower shells (photo by Paul Konrad).

Do you feed no-shell sunflower seeds, or are you still cleaning up piles of sunflower seed shells under your feeders? We swear by feeding shelled sunflower seeds for a couple obvious reasons, but there are other reasons why shell-less bird foods are best, and here we will cover a gamut of problems with buying and feeding sunflower seeds with shells. At the top of the Plus List is the fact that no-shell seeds means no-mess seeds. Before we used shell-less seeds, we raked shells below our feeders regularly, shoveled them into a garbage bag, and indirectly added the shells to the local landfill – no more!

When you rake sunflower seed shells, do you notice there is an area where grass doesn’t grow anymore? That’s a result of the toxins found in the sunflower seeds that kill grass. Bet you didn’t know that. Those shells also attract bacteria and mold, and the situation just isn’t as clean and healthy as it should be, or could be.

The next time you clean the area below your feeders, fill your feeder with shell-less sunflower seeds – you will notice the difference immediately as to how much better your feeding station looks, day after day. Then too, add up the amount of time you save when you don’t need to clean up seed shells – what’s that time add up to, and what’s it worth not having to deal with shell refuse anymore?

Actually, if all that shelled seeds do is to keep our feeding station cleaner, that would be enough of an incentive for us to go shell-less. A clean area surrounding your feeding station provides better reflection on bird feeding activities for you and for others who may check out your feeding station. And it may be a difference maker when it comes to getting others interested in feeding birds – those who don’t want the mess in their yard.

The big question for many birders is the added cost; but in reality, there has been no question that the benefits of feeding shelled seeds out-weigh the small added cost. Speaking of weight, we pay for the weight of seed shells, rather than the real bird food, the seeds. The shells also take up a considerable portion of any bag of sunflower seeds, which means you get less bird food in a bag of seeds with shells.

Would you believe that in a package of black oil sunflower seeds, 40 percent of the bag is composed of shells? Only 60 percent is edible. In a package of shell-less black oil sunflower seeds, 100 percent of the contents is edible. That space consideration also means that you will fill feeders less often, because the shells take up a lot of space in a feeder, just as they do in the package you buy them in.

While we usually think about the cost of shell-less seeds compared to seeds in shells, perhaps we should think about it from the opposite angle. If you are feeding shell-less seeds, would you save a little money knowing you would need to clean and dispose of volumes of sunflower seed shells, buy seeds more often, fill feeders almost twice as often – and clean feeders more often? Shells sometimes require more feeder maintenance due to shells stuck in feeders, and because they add to the dust and debris that accumulates in feeders.

More to Consider

In case you’re not already convinced, here are a few more insights: You have undoubtedly noticed that many birds grab a seed from a feeder and fly away. That seed shell is dropped at another location and we found discarded shells in a variety of locations in our yard, but no longer do we find them on our deck, patio, sidewalk, and driveway. While uneaten sunflower seeds can and do germinate, shelled seeds cannot germinate, keeping the area below your feeders free of unwanted seedlings.

When you switch to shelled sunflower seeds, you will find that birds like But we found that when we switched to shelled sunflower seeds, the smaller finches switched from thistle seeds to sunflower seeds, to the point that we rarely feed thistle seeds any more. So essentially, shelled sunflower seeds attract a greater variety of birds than seeds protected by an outer shell.

An absolute worse-case scenario is that seed shells accumulate, begin to decompose, and start to smell bad; but most important of all is that it is not a healthy place for birds to search for food. We always want to emphasize providing clean, healthy feeders, feeding stations, and areas surrounding feeders to maintain feeding conditions to benefit birds in all the best ways.

When we keep a clean feeding station for birds, we are also keeping a clean feeding area for our family and neighbors. It’s a better reflection of our birding interests and on bird feeding activities. Keep it clean, safe, healthy, and attractive – for you and the birds – whether you choose shelled or shell-less black oil sunflower seeds as your primary bird foods.

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