Can Birds Eat Pumpkin Seeds, Raw or Roasted?

The short answer

• Yes. Birds can eat pumpkin seeds raw or roasted, as long as they are dry and have no salt, oil or seasoning on them.
• Per 100 g, dried pumpkin kernel carries 49.05 g fat, 30.23 g protein and 559 kcal (USDA FDC 170556). That is 95% of sunflower kernel's fat and 45% more protein.
• Roasting is a drying step, not a nutritional one. USDA's roasted kernel has the same 49.05 g fat as the dried kernel and only 3 g less water.
• Salted seeds in the shell are the worst form: 2,541 mg sodium per 100 g, about 140 times the unsalted seed and ten times salted kernels.
• A whole seed straight from a carving pumpkin needs a heavy bill to open. Hull it or chop it if you want more than jays, cardinals, grosbeaks and nuthatches to get at it.

Yes, birds can eat pumpkin seeds, raw or roasted, provided they are dry and unsalted. The kernel is a serious food: USDA puts dried pumpkin kernel at 559 kcal, 49.05 g fat and 30.23 g protein per 100 g, which is nearly the fat of sunflower and a good deal more protein.

Raw or roasted is the wrong question. Heat changes almost nothing in the seed; water and salt change everything.

What is in a pumpkin seed, next to sunflower#

These are the numbers nobody selling pumpkin seed for birds prints. The pumpkin rows are USDA FoodData Central values. The sunflower energy, fat and protein figures are this site's own working figures from the bird food nutrition table, within a gram of USDA's sunflower kernel entry (584 kcal, 51.46 g fat, 20.78 g protein), and the 9 mg of sodium is USDA's.

The black oil row is the kernel figure multiplied by the site's 75% kernel yield, so it describes a pound as you buy it, hull included. USDA has no entry for raw whole pumpkin seed, only roasted, which is why both whole-seed rows say roasted.

Three things fall out of that table.

Kernel for kernel, pumpkin is a sunflower-class fat food. 49.05 g against 51.46 g is 95% of sunflower's fat, and 559 kcal against 584 is 4% less energy. For a winter bird, where fat is the limiting nutrient, a pumpkin kernel and a sunflower heart are close to interchangeable.

On protein it beats every seed in our dataset. 30.23 g per 100 g is about 45% more than sunflower kernel, and more than the 26% of shelled peanuts, which is the highest-protein seed most people put out. Only mealworms, at about 50%, carry more of it. That matters most in autumn molt and hardly at all in January.

The hull costs more than you think. A whole seed with its hull carries 19.4 g of fat per 100 g, about half what black oil in the shell carries per 100 g bought. The difference is hull: fiber rises from 6.0 g per 100 g in the kernel to 18.4 g in the whole seed, and a bird has to strip that hull off to get at the fat.

Raw or roasted: settle it with the water column#

Most pages on this say roasted seeds "last longer" and leave it there. The USDA entries show why. Dried raw kernel holds 5.23 g of water per 100 g. Roasted kernel holds 2.03 g. Fat is 49.05 g in both, and protein moves from 30.23 g to 29.84 g. Roasting is a drying process that happens to use an oven.

So the right comparison is not raw against roasted. It is wet against dry. A seed scooped out of a pumpkin is not a dried seed. It is wet, coated in stringy pulp and sugar, and on a tray outdoors it behaves like fresh fruit, not like birdseed. Project FeederWatch's wording is exact: many species are attracted to the dried seeds of fruits like pumpkins, and any fruit that becomes moldy should be thrown away because some molds create toxins harmful to birds. The general case against damp seed is in moldy seed.

Preparing seeds from a carving pumpkin#

This is our working method.

1. Separate before you carve. Scoop the seeds into a bowl of water. Pulp sinks and seeds float, so you can skim them off clean.
2. Rinse and rub. Work them between your fingers under running water until no strings or orange film remain. Pulp is what molds first.
3. Dry them hard. Towel them off, spread them in one layer, then either leave them indoors in a warm dry room for several days, turning once a day, or put them in the oven at its lowest setting until they are hard, pale and rattle when you shake the tray. Stop before they brown.
4. Add nothing. No oil, no salt, no butter, no sugar, no spice. If you want a batch for yourself, roast it separately.
5. Cool and store. Keep them in a sealed jar somewhere cool, exactly as you would store birdseed, and use them within a few weeks, because the same oils that make them valuable go rancid.

The test is simple: a dry seed snaps or cracks, a damp one bends. Anything that bends is not ready to go outside.

Salt, and why the shell makes it worse#

Plain salt is on every "do not feed" list, and the reasons are set out in what not to feed birds. The pumpkin numbers make it concrete.

Salted seeds in the shell are ten times saltier than salted kernels, because the salt sits on a large fibrous hull that a bird works in its bill before it reaches the kernel. One ounce of salted in-shell seeds carries about 720 mg of sodium.

Which birds can open a whole seed#

No source we could find ranks bird species on pumpkin seed, so this page does not. FeederWatch says many species are attracted to dried pumpkin seeds, and that is as far as the evidence goes. What practice adds is mechanical: a whole seed has a flat, tough hull, and whether a bird can use it depends on its bill.

Birds with the bill for it. The heavy-billed crackers, Blue Jays and the western jays, Northern Cardinals, and Evening and Rose-breasted grosbeaks, can split a hull. White-breasted Nuthatches do it another way, wedging a seed in bark and hammering it open. The closest thing in our own data is striped sunflower, the other thick-hulled seed, and the list of birds that handle that one is a fair guide to who can manage a whole pumpkin seed:

• Top-tier favorite for: Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, Evening Grosbeak, Steller's Jay
• Eaten readily by: Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Purple Finch, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, California Scrub-Jay
• Taken occasionally by: Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, House Finch, Mourning Dove, Eastern Towhee, House Sparrow, Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird

Read that as a statement about bills, not a preference ranking for pumpkin.

Everyone else. Small birds that open seeds by holding and hammering, such as chickadees, have a hard time with a hull this size and flat shape. Remove the barrier and they do not need to. Hulled kernels (sold as pepitas) or whole seeds pulsed briefly in a food processor give pieces in the size range of sunflower chips.

How to put them out#

• Use a tray, not a tube. Whole seeds are broad and flat and belong on a platform or tray feeder, where nothing has to fit through a port. A tray with a mesh floor drains and dries fastest.
• Put out one day's worth. A small handful at first. What is left at dusk comes in, so nothing sits out overnight to gather dew.
• Expect squirrels. A pile of oily seeds on an open tray draws squirrels as fast as birds, and whatever is dropped overnight is an invitation to rats and mice. Small amounts, collected at dusk, solve both.

When the answer stops applying#

Anything that was part of a display. Painted, glittered, waxed or candle-sooted pumpkins, and the seeds left inside them for days, are compost. So is a carved jack-o-lantern once it softens: FeederWatch's rule on moldy fruit applies to the shell as much as the seeds.

Warm, humid weather. Even dry seeds reabsorb moisture on an open tray. In the Deep South in October, or anywhere during a warm wet spell, cut the quantity to what goes in a few hours.

As a replacement for your main seed. At 19.4 g of fat per 100 g, whole pumpkin seed is a worse winter food than the black oil sunflower it would displace; the case for sunflower as the default is in best bird seed. Seed from your own carving pumpkin earns a tray because it is free and arrives just as fall feeding ramps up. That is a reason to dry it, not to buy it by the sack.

Frequently asked questions#

Can birds eat raw pumpkin seeds?

Yes, once they are dry. Raw is not the problem; wet is. Seeds scooped out of a pumpkin are coated in pulp and hold a lot of water, and a pile of them on a tray starts to mold within days in mild weather. Rinse off the pulp, spread them in one layer and dry them until they are hard and rattle, then offer them raw. Project FeederWatch names the dried seeds of fruits like pumpkins as attractive to many species, and the word dried is doing the work in that sentence.

Are roasted pumpkin seeds OK for birds?

Plain roasted seeds are fine. USDA lists roasted, unsalted pumpkin kernels at 49.05 g fat and 29.84 g protein per 100 g, against 49.05 g and 30.23 g for dried kernels, so roasting changes almost nothing a bird cares about. What rules roasted seeds out is what usually goes on them before the oven: salt, oil, butter, sugar or spice. Roast your own on a bare tray with nothing added, or buy seeds labeled unsalted with a single ingredient.

Can birds eat salted pumpkin seeds?

No. Salted pumpkin seeds in the shell carry 2,541 mg of sodium per 100 g in USDA's data, against 18 mg for the same seeds unsalted. That is about 140 times as much, and 1 oz of them holds roughly 720 mg. Rinsing does not fix it reliably, because the salt is on and in the shell. Salted kernels are lower at 256 mg per 100 g, still fourteen times the unsalted figure and still not bird food.

What birds eat pumpkin seeds?

Project FeederWatch says many species are attracted to dried pumpkin seeds, and no source we could find ranks individual species on them, so this page does not. The practical limit is the bill. A whole seed has a tough, flat hull, and the birds that can open one are the heavy-billed seed crackers (jays, cardinals, grosbeaks) and nuthatches, which wedge a seed in bark and hammer it. Hulled or chopped kernels remove that barrier and suit the same birds that take sunflower hearts.

Can I leave my jack-o-lantern out for the birds?

Only briefly, and not once it softens. A carved pumpkin starts to rot within days outdoors, and FeederWatch advises throwing away any fruit that becomes moldy because some molds create toxins that are harmful to birds. Take the seeds out before carving, dry them indoors, and treat the shell itself as a one or two day novelty in cold weather. Anything with candle soot, paint, glitter or wax on it goes in the compost, not the yard.

Sources and further reading

1. Seeds, pumpkin and squash seed kernels, dried (FDC ID 170556, SR Legacy) USDA FoodData Central 559 kcal, 49.05 g fat, 30.23 g protein, 10.71 g carbohydrate, 5.23 g water and 7 mg sodium per 100 g
2. Seeds, pumpkin and squash seed kernels, roasted, without salt (FDC ID 170557) and with salt added (FDC ID 169415) USDA FoodData Central 574 kcal, 49.05 g fat, 29.84 g protein, 2.03 g water; sodium 18 mg unsalted and 256 mg salted per 100 g
3. Seeds, pumpkin and squash seeds, whole, roasted, without salt (FDC ID 170188) and with salt added (FDC ID 168601) USDA FoodData Central 446 kcal, 19.4 g fat, 18.55 g protein, 18.4 g fiber; sodium 18 mg unsalted and 2,541 mg salted per 100 g
4. Seeds, sunflower seed kernels, dried (FDC ID 170562, SR Legacy) USDA FoodData Central 584 kcal, 51.46 g fat, 20.78 g protein per 100 g, for the sunflower comparison
5. Food Types Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch Many species are attracted to the dried seeds of fruits like pumpkins; discard fruit that becomes moldy because some molds create toxins harmful to birds