Did you know that spicy bird seed is a thing? It’s catching on in popularity as a way to deter squirrels from bird feeders while still being safe and nutritious for birds. You’ll find a ton of different brands online and at bird feeding retail stores.

How does it work? In short…Squirrels, like humans, taste spicy food intensely and are repelled from food that’s too hot. Birds don’t sense capsaicin like mammals do. So, they aren’t bothered by spicy bird seed. According to Wild Birds Unlimited, birds may also enjoy the taste of spicy food.

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But, is spicy bird effective? I wanted to test two things for this story: If my local birds actually enjoy eating spicy bird seed compared to “unflavored” seed, and if spicy bird seed keeps squirrels away.

The Spicy Bird Seed Experiment – Do Birds Actually Like Eating it?

Here’s how I tested everything. I bought some Cole’s Cajun Cardinal Spicy Bird Seed online. I put it into a regular, not squirrel-proof, bird feeder and placed it next to my Droll Yankee Flipper bird feeder filled with a regular Costco bird seed. Both seeds have sunflower and safflower. I wanted to leave the spicy bird seed vulnerable while keeping the normal bird seed in a squirrel-proof feeder.

To learn more on if birds actually like eating spicy bird seed, I decided to tally in a notebook every time I saw a bird eat one bird seed or the other. I did this over the course of a month to get a large enough sample.

My verdict: Birds either ate spicy bird seed at the same rate, or even more, compared to “regular” seed at my feeding station. Some birds, like Northern Cardinals and American Goldfinches, seemed to prefer the spicy bird seed mix. My local House Finches preferred the regular Costco bird seed, but still regularly ate the spicy mix.

I recognize this test isn’t 100% perfect. I have a day-job and can’t watch birds all day. I also don’t know if either feeder design might appeal more to birds versus the other. But, doing this for a month, and knowing that my birds have enjoyed both of these feeders in the past..this lines up enough for me to feel comfortable making the takeaway that birds enjoy eating spicy bird seed.

The Spicy Bird Seed Experiment – Does it Keep Squirrels Away?

Using Cole’s spicy bird seed in a regular bird feeder completely prevented squirrels from eating up the seed. So, it works in this regard too!

I saw a few brave squirrels try to eat it, but they quickly learned the hard way and moved on to the not spicy suet I had hanging up. For my next investigation…I’m going to try an experiment with spicy suet over the winter.

That’s two wins for spicy bird seed!

Final Takeaways

I’m going to use spicy bird seed more often. My local birds appear to enjoy eating it, I’ve noticed no ill effects on them after more than a month of use, and it keeps squirrels away. Win, win, win!

One important thing to keep in mind when using a spicy bird seed is to be careful handling it. You don’t want to touch it and get that hot pepper oil in your eyes…or other places (story for another time). Wearing gloves is a good practice when handling spicy seed. You don’t want to end up like the spiced out squirrels in your neighborhood.

Of course, there are a ton of different bird seeds on the market, but I want to emphasize that I only used the Cole’s Cajun Cardinal Mix for this story. This is a seed I will continue to buy, but other products should also work well. I’d recommend a mix that has sunflower and safflower seeds.

You can shop for all kinds of different spicy bird seed products at this link.