Oil Seed Rape

Energy-Rich Rapeseed for Birds

Offering straight rapeseed is one of the most effective ways to provide an energy-dense lifeline for heavier billed birds visiting your garden. It has immense value during freezing winter months when natural resources are limited. Birds need higher calories to survive the night, and especially during the spring breeding season.

Smaller, soft-billed songbirds tend to find the outer husk of oilseed rape challenging, but it is a favourite for heavier-billed garden birds. Birds like finches and those in the bunting family have robust, conical beaks that act as perfect natural nutcrackers. This means they can easily snap the shell open to access the kernel inside.

Attract Colourful Wild Birds with Rapeseed for Birds

Introducing rapeseed bird food into your feeding stations allows you to attract a wide variety of colourful species to your garden, including Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Siskins and Bullfinches. Reed buntings are especially attracted to rapeseed bird food, with the species being a surprisingly common garden visitor in some parts of the UK.

Since rapeseed is relatively small and enclosed in a small shell, it's best presented in a hanging seed feeder. The narrow feeding ports keep the seeds dry and prevent them from spilling out or blowing away in the wind. You can also use ground feeders to appeal to finches and buntings, since they are also comfortable feeding at lower levels.

Our rapeseed is a straight bird seed, meaning you can use it on its own, but it is also a highly versatile ingredient to include in your own custom seed mixes at home. The small size and high oil content of oilseed rape mean it combines effortlessly with other small seeds, such as millet and canary seed, without separating in the feeder. Creating a bespoke mix allows you to tailor your feeding stations to local finches and buntings, providing them with a concentrated boost of fat and protein.