What bird seed really costs, per pound eaten and per calorie
Two corrections turn a shelf price into a useful number: subtract the hull, then divide by the energy inside it.
The short answer
- Correcting for hull moves black oil sunflower from $1.35 a pound to about $1.80 a pound eaten, and striped sunflower from $1.60 to about $2.67.
- Suet is the cheapest energy in the shed by a wide margin, because it is nearly pure fat with no waste.
- Cracked corn is the cheapest bag and among the worst calories per dollar, because it is a low-fat grain.
- Sunflower hearts cost about 44% more per pound eaten than in-shell black oil sunflower, so the case for them rests on mess and access rather than on price.
A bag of bird seed is priced by weight, and weight is not what you are buying. You are buying two things the label does not state: the fraction of that weight a bird can actually swallow, and the energy inside it.
Correct for both and the ranking of the common foods changes enough to matter.
| Food | Edible fraction | kcal / 100 g edible | Fat | Price / lb | Cost / lb eaten | kcal per dollar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black oil | 75% | 584 | 51% | $1.35 | $1.80 | 1,472 |
| Hearts | 100% | 584 | 51% | $2.60 | $2.60 | 1,019 |
| Striped | 60% | 584 | 49% | $1.60 | $2.67 | 993 |
| Safflower | 65% | 517 | 38% | $1.95 | $3.00 | 782 |
| Nyjer | 86% | 515 | 35% | $3.40 | $3.95 | 591 |
| Millet | 82% | 378 | 4% | $1.10 | $1.34 | 1,278 |
| Cracked corn | 100% | 365 | 4% | $0.75 | $0.75 | 2,208 |
| Peanuts (shelled) | 100% | 567 | 49% | $3.10 | $3.10 | 830 |
| Peanuts (in shell) | 73% | 567 | 49% | $2.40 | $3.29 | 782 |
| Suet | 100% | 740 | 75% | $2.20 | $2.20 | 1,526 |
| Mealworms | 100% | 500 | 28% | $9.50 | $9.50 | 239 |
| Nectar | 100% | 68 | 0% | $0.16 | $0.16 | 1,928 |
| Fruit / jelly | 100% | 180 | 0% | $2.00 | $2.00 | 408 |
Prices are 2026 United States big-bag benchmarks used as defaults in our seed cost calculator. Swap in your own and the ranking can change; the edible fraction and energy columns will not.
The two corrections, worked through#
Take black oil sunflower at a benchmark $1.35 per pound.
Correction one: hull. About a quarter of the weight of in-shell black oil sunflower is hull. It is cracked at the feeder, dropped, and eventually raked off the lawn. So one pound bought is about 0.75 lb eaten, and the real price is:
$1.35 ÷ 0.75 = $1.80 per pound eaten
Correction two: energy. Sunflower kernel runs about 584 kcal per 100 g, which is 2,650 kcal per pound of kernel. So one dollar buys:
2,650 × 0.75 ÷ 1.35 = about 1,470 kcal
Do the same for cracked corn at $0.75 per pound, no hull, 365 kcal per 100 g (1,656 kcal per pound):
1,656 ÷ 0.75 = about 2,200 kcal per dollar
Which is why the table is worth reading carefully rather than skimming. Corn wins that particular comparison on calories per dollar. It loses on almost everything else: the birds it attracts, what those calories are made of, and what it does to your yard.
The full ranking, and what it means#
Best value energy: suet, then black oil sunflower. Suet is close to pure fat, has no waste and is eaten by exactly the birds you want a suet feeder to attract. Its limit is temperature, not price. See suet.
Best value per species attracted: black oil sunflower. No other single food is rated 3 or better by as many species in our preference chart.
Deceptive value: striped sunflower. At 60% kernel yield it works out at $2.67 per pound eaten, a few cents more than sunflower hearts, which have no hull at all. Nobody buys striped as the cheap sunflower once that comparison is on the page. It earns its place as a filter, not as a staple, because thick hulls exclude house sparrows and blackbirds. See striped sunflower.
Genuinely expensive: dried mealworms. Roughly seven times the price per pound of sunflower and lower in energy density than sunflower kernel. They are a targeting tool for bluebirds and wrens, and a handful goes a long way. See mealworms.
Cheap for a reason: cracked corn and milo-heavy mixes. The bag price is low because the ingredients are agricultural commodities with low oil content. If your goal is doves and juncos at a ground station, that is a fair trade. If it is going in a tube feeder, most of it will be swept out onto the grass. See birdseed mixes.
What a year actually costs#
For a standard two-feeder setup, one tube and one suet cage, in a busy suburban yard:
| Item | Winter (Nov to Mar) | Summer (Apr to Oct) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black oil sunflower at 5 lb a week | 108 lb, about $146 | 45 lb, about $61 | $207 |
| Suet cakes at 1 per week in winter | 22 cakes, about $37 | 8 cakes, about $13 | $50 |
| Nyjer, 10 lb a year | $34 | ||
| Total consumables | About $290 |
Those are our benchmark prices against typical consumption, not a survey. Your number will be different, mostly because yard traffic varies more than seed prices do. Put your own figures in the seed cost calculator and it will give you the annual total, the weeks a bag lasts and the hull weight you will be sweeping up.
Where the estimates are soft#
Kernel yield is the weakest number in this analysis, and it is the one doing the most work. It varies with growing conditions, grade and how the lot was cleaned. We use midpoints of published hull shares: 75% for black oil sunflower, 60% for striped, 65% for safflower, 82% for proso millet, 73% for in-shell peanuts. Real lots will land a few points either side, and a bad lot considerably lower.
Shift black oil sunflower from 75% to 70% and its cost per pound eaten moves from $1.80 to $1.93, which does not change the ranking. It would have to fall to about 50% before hearts became the cheaper way to buy sunflower kernel. That sensitivity, and the rest of the assumptions behind these tables, is set out in the methodology.
Frequently asked questions#
What is the cheapest bird food per calorie?
Rendered suet, at our benchmark prices. It is roughly 75% fat, there is no hull, and nothing is dropped, so almost every calorie you buy is eaten. Black oil sunflower is second once hull is subtracted. The catch is that suet is a cold-weather food that melts and goes rancid above about 80 °F, so it cannot be the whole strategy.
Are sunflower hearts worth the extra money?
Often, but not because they are cheaper. Subtracting hull narrows the gap and does not close it: hearts are $2.60 per pound eaten at benchmark prices against $1.80 for in-shell black oil, about 44% more for the same kernel. What the extra buys is everything the hull causes, so it is worth most where hull is worst: no shell litter, no dead patch under the feeder, no seedlings in the border, no sweeping, and a feeder that can hang over a deck or patio at all. Hearts also reach birds that handle a shell badly. Judge it on the yard, not on the budget.
Why is cracked corn poor value if it is cheap?
Because value here is calories delivered per dollar, and corn is a low-fat grain with about 365 kcal per 100 g against sunflower's 584. You are buying starch and water-binding carbohydrate rather than oil. Corn also attracts deer, rodents and blackbird flocks that consume the bag without adding species to your yard.
Do these prices apply outside the United States?
The prices do not, but the corrections do. Kernel yields and energy densities are properties of the seed, not of the market, so the ranking by calories per dollar will hold in any market where relative prices are similar. Enter local prices in the seed cost calculator and it recalculates the whole table.
Sources and further reading
- FoodData Central US Department of Agriculture Reference energy, fat and protein values for sunflower, safflower, peanut, millet and corn kernels
- Methodology Bird Feeder Web Kernel yield estimates and how the derived columns are calculated