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Here's some added food for thought....
If you buy the "songbird / wild bird mixes, you are getting a variety of seeds. Som of these are weed seeds, and since birds know what they want, they will target the best seeds first. What they will do is pick away the "junk" seeds to get at the desired ones. That is why feeders filled with "mixes" need filling more often. The sparrows are renowned for spilling the junk seeds to get at the sunflower seed.
Cracked corn will be eaten by most birds, but if left on the ground, the decaying corn will act as a pre-emergent weed killer, preventing most seeds (like grass) from germinating.
Sunflower seeds - the shells can pile up around a feeder and act like a mulch, preventing desired plants from growing properly.
I feed the birds with 3 primary food types.
Sunflower seeds - My feeders are squirrel proof, so they only get the spillage.
Thistle (niger) seeds - Small songbirds LOVE these, but the larger birds and squirrels don't.
Suet feeders - Mainlly for the woodpeckers, although the squirrels will hit them for the sunflower seed in the suet.
Pigeons are pretty much a rarety in our yard, and the few that stop by never stay long.
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