Best bird seed

For many of us, feeding the birds is one of the greatest joys of our garden. But that little pleasure can quickly lead to a big problem: a sea of sprouting weeds beneath your bird feeder.

Fortunately, there's a simple solution. Many companies now offer no grow or no mess bird seed mixes. But do they actually work? We put them to the test to find the best bird seed that will feed your feathered friends without feeding your weeds.

No mess mixes are simply seeds without their husks. This means birds can eat them whole, without dropping the inedible shells onto your patio or lawn. It's also great for soft-billed birds like blackbirds and robins, who can't easily break open the husks.

No grow mixes are treated so the seeds won't germinate. This is usually done by heating, flaking, or chopping them into smaller pieces.

If you'd like to try solid bird food, check our reviews of the best fat balls for birds.

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Best bird seed

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Best no-grow bird seed

Best no-mess bird seed

Tips for feeding birds

• Timing The most important time to feed garden birds is winter and early spring. However, offering food all year round is even more beneficial, especially as birds will get used to regular feeding and visit your garden accordingly. 
• Little and often The best way to avoid spilled seed making a mess on the ground – whether it grows or not – is to feed the birds little and often, rather than putting out lots of food at once. Also tidy up spilled food regularly. 
• Fat balls These are usually made from a mixture of suet and various seeds, and are popular with blue tits, great tits, robins and long-tailed tits. See our pick of the best fat balls.
• Variety Put out a range of foods to attract a wider variety of species. Along with seeds and nuts, try fresh or dried mealworms, which are favoured by robins, blue tits and pied wagtails. Meaty tinned dog or cat food can be used as a substitute for earthworms during dry summers – blackbirds will take it and even feed it to their chicks. Be warned, though: this will also attract larger birds such as magpies and gulls. 
• Keep it inexpensive Some kitchen scraps are suitable for feeding birds. Small amounts of crumbled, moistened bread, leftover baked or mashed potato and pastry scraps are all welcome snacks. Grated cheese is popular with robins, wrens, thrushes and dunnocks, while robins, thrushes, tits, blackbirds and starlings all enjoy dried fruits (soak them first during spring and summer) and bruised or partly rotten apples, pears, plums and other stone fruit. 
• Bird safety Peanuts and fat balls are often sold in mesh bags, which birds can become trapped in. Always transfer the food to a wire cage feeder.
• Squirrel-proofing Stop squirrels from joining the feast with a Best Buy squirrel-roof bird feeder.
• Positioning Position bird tables and feeders in a spot that makes it difficult for cats to reach, but close to a leafy bush or tree that birds can use as cover. 
• Cleaning Wash and disinfect your feeders, bird tables and bird bath regularly to reduce the risk of disease.

Why Which? bird seed reviews are better

Which? is independent and doesn't accept advertising or freebies, so you can trust our reviews to give you the full, honest and impartial truth about a product.

For no-grow bird seed, we tested eight well-known brands, both on seed trays in the greenhouse and outdoors.

Each mix was sown in a seed tray of best compost and kept in the greenhouse.

We also sowed each mix on the ground outside in a bed protected by a fruit cage.

• We recorded germination in the greenhouse four days and 10 days after sowing.
• We recorded germination after 10 days on the seeds placed outside.
• Any seed that germinated was allowed to grow on so we could see whether the resulting plants were invasive or could be problematic.

We also contacted the manufacturers to find out the exact ingredients of each seed blend, since we noticed that some contained a greater variety of seeds than was listed on the packaging.

For no-mess bird seed, we chose 23 ‘no-mess’ bird seed mixes, and from January we tested them in a garden in Cambridgeshire. We filled four feeders at a time and recorded the weight of feed that was eaten over the course of a week. 

The following week, we tried four more feeds. Over the 18 weeks of the trial, each seed mix was tried three times. 

We put trays under the feeders to catch dropped seeds, but birds ate everything before we could record this. 

With a wildlife camera, we recorded how many birds used the feeders, and the species. 

Finally, we sowed a handful of each mix in seed trays to see if any seeds germinated and whether the seedlings were strong enough to establish.

Gardening tool and accessory reviews - find out what else we test.