Bird Seed Experiment

by Chris, Randy, and Qian

Introduction

We conducted an experiment to find out what kind of bird seed birds prefer the best. We became interested in this topic because our class was feeding birds at our school, but only using two different kinds of seed. So, we wanted to find out if the birds like different kinds of bird seed and it they have a preference. This way people will know what to feed birds in order to attract birds to their backyards.

Experiment

It took many steps to conduct this experiment. First, we had to make the bird feeders. They were made from empty and clean 20 oz. soda bottles and a seed holder. We labeled and filled each with the same amount but different kinds of seed. We used sunflower seeds, sunflower seeds without hulls, and mixed bird seed. We marked the amount of seed in each with a black marker and hung them up on a tree in our bird habitat on a Monday. We also removed any other bird feeders in order to only provide the three choices for the birds. We checked the bird feeders each day and marked the amount of seed eaten with a marker.

We did this experiment three times, but each time we rotated the position of the feeders. We wanted to rule out if the position of the feeder had an effect of the type of seed that was eaten. It did not seem to have an effect. Based on our experiment, it seems that the birds liked the mixed bird seeds the best. Every time we checked the feeders on Tuesday the mixed bird seed was gone. The two types of sunflower seeds were approximately half gone. Then, on Wednesday, the sunflower seeds were completely eaten. They did not seem to have a preference for the different types of sunflower seeds.

We think House Sparrows, Mourning Doves, and Cardinals were the kinds of birds eating from our feeders because these are the kinds of birds we observed in our habitat. We were fortunate that we didn't have any trouble with squirrels.

Conclusion and Future Research

From our research we learned that the birds in our habitat liked the mixed bird seed the best. If we could do something else it would be to find out how many birds have more than one color.