I thought finches and other birds would be tearing these thistle seeds up, but I have seen not one bird at the feeder. I’m on the eastern shore of MD, but I thought finches were everywhere.
Tasted of few of these minute seeds and they actually aren’t bad. They taste a little (vaguely) a little like sunflower seeds with a hint of nuttiness.
Are these OK for humans to eat?
Maybe it’s safe, but don’t you find it a problem to get your mouth into those little holes in the bird feeder?
My oral skills are legendary.
I know that milk thistle seed is edible. Natural health people eat them for “liver detox”. That bag looks like milk thistle seed, but it could very well be of a different variety.
Niger seed is edible, they make oil from it and eat it in things in India. But just because it’s edible doesn’t mean you should be eating it. The seed could have dirt, bugs, or mold in it.
I don’t know why the birds are ignoring it, the price of niger seed has gone way up. Some years they flock to it, some years they ignore it. I have a net bag I put out for the goldfinches, I’ll try one more time this year. But I wouldn’t just eat it, you could be spending a lot of time in the bathroom the next day.
Are you putting it in a thistle sock, rather than a feeder? I was putting some out to attract the pretty green finches. They won’t eat the regular seed. But then the red finches, who do eat the regular seed decided they would eat up the thistle and it became too expensive. So the little green birdies are out of luck.