Will the birds eat my seeds?

Will the seeds I sow outside become a feast for the wildlife before they have a chance to grow?

Birds and other critters may consume a few seeds, but most seeds are quite small and not very noticeable to birds or other seed eaters. Prairie Moon seed mixes have high seeding rates to compensate for some loss and will still grow well even if birds do eat a few seeds.

Sowing onto bare ground in late fall or winter: Ideally, your native seed is planted in the late fall and soon covered with snow.  Even if the snow doesn’t come, the repeated freeze-thaw cycles work the seeds into the ground, protecting them from birds.

Sowing onto snow: If you sow your seed onto fluffy snow, the dark seeds quickly melt their way into the snow soon followed by the lighter seeds.  Once under the snow, the seeds are safe from birds.

Sowing onto bare ground in late spring: Large seeds should be lightly raked into the soil. This protects them from predation. Small seeds are surface sown, but they are too small to be of interest to birds and other critters.

11:30 AM- 1 hour later, much of the seed has already melted into the snow.