Feeding wild birds is a lot of fun but if you don't take the trouble to find the right seeds you could up harming the environment. The main reason for this according to KATU is that the wild bird seed may contain invasive weeds that are not native to the area.
Portland Audubon's Karen Munday told KATU that some seed is bad for birds because some feed mixes contain non-native weed seeds.
"The last thing we want for the health of our birds is to have non-native weed seeds and weeds be out there. The weeds non only hurt habitat bio-diversity but the wild birds can fly away and spread the seeds elsewhere."
Recently, Oregon State University researchers discovered up to 14 non-native weed seed species in bags of seed that were purchased from Corvallis-area stores.
The bags included Pigweed, Russian thistle, crabgrass and witchgrass weed seeds.
Each is an invasive weed that's banned by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
A video report says some of the bird seed also includes milo, which is a grain that the birds won't even eat.
