Chickadees eat almost anything good. Choose by how much mess you'll accept and what season it is.
Choose by what matters to you
- Best valueBlack Oil Sunflower →
- Winter fatPeanut Perfection Suet →
- Insect proteinBird Grub →
Their favourite seed, without the shells under your feeder.
From $21.99
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10 products
Buying guide
How to choose
Black oil sunflower is the best value and the seed chickadees reach for first. Sunflower hearts and chips are the same food without the shell, so there's nothing to clean up and no waste: you pay a little more per bag but every bit gets eaten.
In winter, add suet or peanuts for extra fat. In spring and summer, when chickadees are feeding their young, insect-protein foods like black soldier fly larvae are the closest thing to what they'd find themselves.
Hearts, chips or whole sunflower: what's the difference?
Whole black oil sunflower has the shell on and costs the least. Hearts are whole kernels with the shell removed. Chips are broken kernels, which suit smaller birds and tube feeders. Same seed, different trade-off between price and mess.
What should I put out in winter?
Add a suet cake alongside your sunflower. The extra fat helps chickadees through cold nights, and the same cake draws woodpeckers and nuthatches.
Is the insect food just for summer?
It's most useful in spring and summer, but chickadees eat it year-round. Bird Grub can go loose in a tray, and Bird Grub Suet works in any suet cage.