Nyjer or Thistle seed is a popular food for finches or sparrows and can be offered year-round.
Nyjer is a highly nutritious and popular wild bird food with a long, spiky seed. It is one of the more popular seed mixes used by backyard birders and can be found at almost any garden center, either by itself or in a birdseed mix.
Nyjer bird seed has many names or spellings. It is also known as thistle seed, niger seed, nyger seed, niger, Nyjer, or oil-seed-thistle.
Are Nyjer And Thistle Seed The Same?
Nyjer seeds are sometimes called thistle seeds, but they are not the same thing and do not come from the Thistle plant. Nyjer seeds are harvested from the Guizotia flower of the Niger plant (Guizotia abyssinica), which is a sturdy, upstanding annual herb with bright yellow flowers. The plants are native to Ethiopia and India.
Thistle, by comparison, is a flowering plant found in many North American backyards.
Early in the marketing effort of the birdseed, retailers referred to niger seed as thistle seed since the finches also love to feed on the seeds of the thistle plant.