Comparative Preferences of Field Sparrows and Cardinals among Four Propagated Seeds

Abstract

Both Willson (1971) and Robel et al. (1974) reported that wild birds eat the most abundant seeds available, regardless of energy content. A contrary view is held by Pulliainnen (1965), Moss (1968), and Gardarsson and Moss (1968), who report that some gallinaceous birds select food on the basis of nutritional quality. Selection for dietary items with higher nutritional qualities has obvious survival value (Royama 1970, Smigel and Rosenzweig 1974). Studies by Willson (1971) and Willson and Harmeson (1973) found that seed selection by finches was related to bill size, and that ease of handling was the most important factor related to seed preferences of finches. The controversy surrounding seed selection by birds, and the desire of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) to establish wildlife plantings preferred by song birds, led us to study preferences of cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) and field sparrows (Spizella pusilla) among seeds of 4 plant species being propagated at the SCS Plant Materials Center, 10 km south of Manhattan, Kansas.