Favorite Foods for Attracting Wildlife. Black-oil Sunflower Seeds. These smaller sunflower seeds attract more birds than the larger striped sunflower seeds. We see chickadees and nuthatches eating the small seeds along with the larger birds like the grosbeaks, jays and pigeons. All the wildlife enjoy apples, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, salmonberries and elderberries. Watch a video of a female Western Tanager eating a blackberry.