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More About Milo
Fun facts about a fascinating bird food You probably know red milo as the round, reddish bird seed being studied as part of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Seed Preference Test. But did you know that milo is a major agricultural crop in the United States—grown throughout the Great Plains region and in Arizona and California? Let’s take a closer look. Red milo is another name for grain sorghum. It’s one of many varieties of Sorghum vulgare, a plant that’s closely related to corn. In fact, grain sorghum looks a lot like Indian corn, except the seeds grow in a loosely branched cluster, not lined up on an ear. Nutritionally, milo and corn are very similar. Milo is native to Africa, and it’s an important food crop there and in parts of Asia. Farmers began growing milo in the United States in the last century, mostly as a stock and poultry feed. The Seed Preference Test asks: "Do birds love milo or hate it?" Until about 30 years ago, a farmer’s answer would have been, "They love it." Blackbirds, grackles, crows, doves, and sparrows descended on fields to feast on the grain. In response to farmers’ complaints, Georgia plant breeders in the 1960s developed so-called "bird-tolerant hybrids"—milo varieties with extra tannin (that’s the bitter-tasting chemical that gives tea its astringency). Yet the same milo that’s supposed to repel birds often gets packaged as "wild bird food," and the Seed Preference Test Results show that some birds eat it readily. Do farmers in different regions grow different varieties of milo that are more, or less, tasty to the birds? We’re trying to find out—and we’ll keep you posted. —Cynthia Berger . |
