(Click on the following link to listen to an audio version of this blog … Safflower Seeds
I went to the feed store a few Saturdays ago to pick up some bird seed. I have been buying shelled sunflower seeds since the end of October and have been impressed that 20 pounds of shelled sunflower seeds kept my feeder-organisms fed for about the same length of time as 40 pounds of still-in-the-shell sunflower seeds and only costs a few dollars more a bag! The time and work savings from not having to rake up the spent seed shells from under the feeder made those couple of dollars seem like a good bargain. Also, our granddaughter, Zofia, who is now 16 months old and extremely mobile, decided that the old sunflower seed shells looked like fun to play with (and stuff into her mouth)! We had to do something about that!
Anyway, Deborah and I were at the feed store with our 4-year-old grandson, Ari. Deborah and Ari were off in the back of the store looking for the store-cats (two, friendly, twenty-plus pound, American short-haired domestics!), and I was at the front looking over the stacked seed bags.
I picked up one bag that looked like the shelled sunflower seeds that I had been buying noting that the white seeds through the clear plastic of the bag looked larger than ones I had been scooping out into the feeder, I wasn’t wearing my reading glasses (big mistake) but the label on the bag definitely had a heading word that started with a capital “S.” I paid for the bag feeling pleased that it was about $8 cheaper than the bag I had bought 3 weeks ago. Some impact of supply and demand, I wondered? I watched Ari playing with one of the store cats, and I didn’t think any more about the bag of seed I was carrying.
It was only when I got the bag home that I clearly read its label: safflower seeds!
In my defense, the bag, except for the large label at the top, was identical to the shelled sunflower seed bags. They were both packaged by the same seed company and had phrases like “Wild birds love them!” and “No mess feeding” prominently splashed all over them.
What, I wondered, were safflower seeds? Time to fire up the Internet Search Engine of choice.
Safflower blooms. Photo by E. Ustua, Wikimedia Commons
Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is a plant native to Asia and Africa. It native range stretches from India over to the Middle East and up the Nile River into Ethiopia. It is a thistle-like, highly branched annual plant with attractive red, orange, yellow or white flowers from which dyes were once extracted. Safflower is one of humanity’s oldest cultivated plants. Archeological evidence indicates that it was widely grown in Mesopotamia in 2500 B.C. and also in ancient Egypt.
Safflower is sometimes called “the poor man’s saffron” because its dried flower petals resemble saffron and can be used to give saffron’s characteristic colors (although not its flavors) to foods (like rice). The Spanish brough safflower to Mexico during the 16th Century primarily to use it as a saffron substitute.
Safflower grows well in hot climates and is very tolerant of drought primarily because of its deep tap root. In North America it is widely grown in Mexico and California and is cultivated as a summer crop in the Northern Great Plains. Most of the harvested seeds from these safflower fields are processed for oil which is them used as cooking oils and to make salad dressings and margarines. Safflower oil is also used in the manufacturing of cosmetics, and, as we inadvertently found out at the feed store, it is also used as bird feed.
Kazakhstan leads the world in safflower seed production (in 2020 they harvested 226,739 tons of safflower seeds), Russia and the United States are second and third in the world for safflower production with just over and just under 90,000 tons of safflower seeds in 2020.
Safflowers in a field. Photo by MGB CEE, Wikimedia Commons
Safflower flowers, seeds and oils have been used in traditional folk medicine throughout the Middle East (especially in Persia (Iran)) to treat a wide variety of maladies (including constipation, rheumatism, psoriasis and mouth ulcers). Scientific exploration of the efficacy of safflower products and extracts have indicated that they might be effective in treating heart disease, blood clots and certain kinds of cancer. Safflower also reduces blood sugar and cholesterol and helps to control skin inflammations. The chemical “hydroxysafflor yellow A” seems to be the active agent in many of safflower’s medical applications.
Safflower oil is also considered to be a very healthy cooking oil. It is a rich source of essential fatty acids and tolerates high cooking temperatures.
A number of seed companies extoll the efficacy of safflower seeds for use as bird feed. It has an excellent nutritional profile (38% fat, 16% protein and 34% carbohydrates) (compared, for example, to the average nutritional profile of sunflower seeds (28% fat, 15% protein and 22% carbohydrates). It does not have the heavy shells of sunflower seeds, but, instead each seed is encased in a thin, but tough protective layer. These safflower seed “shells” are shed by seed -eating birds but are so thin and fragile that they do not form a significant debris layer under an active feeder.
House finch at feeder. Photo by Rhododendrites, Wikimedia Commons
Safflower seeds are said to have a bitter flavor which many bird species tolerate or, at least, get used to. Feeder birds such as cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches, grosbeaks, titmice, doves, house finches and house sparrows are all said to readily consume safflower seeds. Other bird species (like grackles and starlings) are described as intolerant of the safflower taste and will avoid feeders filled with safflower seed.
Another major selling point for use of safflower seeds in backyard bird feeders is the assertion that squirrels (which are the destructive banes of existence for many bird feeder managers) do not like the bitter flavor of safflower seeds, and will, therefore, not come to safflower seed bird feeders!
I filled my bird feeder with safflower seeds when I got home from the feed store Saturday afternoon. Through the rest of the afternoon only one bird (a red breasted nuthatch) came to the feeder, and he only stayed for a few seconds. My seed-eating fox squirrels, though, did come to the feeder and spent the afternoon gorging themselves on the safflower seeds. So much for a squirrel-proof bird feeder seed!
Fox sqyuirrel. USFWS, Public Domain
Over the next four days the squirrels continued to eat the safflower seeds, but also spilled large quantities of the seeds out of the feeders. There was a small amount of the original sunflower seed feed in the feeder, and I think that they were sorting through the safflower seed trying to find it. They were also, though, eating a considerable amount of safflower seed. By Tuesday, flocks of house finches and house sparrows showed up at the feeder, and collared doves and juncos came in and gobbled up the spilled seed on the ground. I have seen chickadees in the feeder and several red breasted nuthatches. A blue jay also came in to the bird bath and dropped down to the ground seed for a few seconds. Most of the activity at the feeder, though, is squirrel!
So, squirrels like safflower seeds! They have recently finished off the seed pods from the backyard honey locust and would probably have eaten anything that I put out. The birds also eat the safflower seeds but do not seem to like them nearly as much as the sunflower seeds. My 20 pounds of mistakenly purchased safflower seeds should last three or four weeks. Then, I think, that I will go back to sunflower seeds to get everyone through the coming winter!