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Whip up some suet - the birds will love you for it

12 years ago

Cold weather, lack of food can take a toll. Birds including titmice, chickadees, woodpeckers, carolina wrens and others LOVE homemade suet.

Lots of recipes to choose from here: http://www.sialis.org/suet.htm

Instructions on getting bluebirds to eat suet are also on this page.

May all your blues be bird!

Bet from CT

http://www.sialis.org

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Comments (4)

kendra2003
12 years ago
Thanks Bet. I make my suet recipe based on one of the recipes at your site. The only thing I did different is instead of adding shelled sunflower seeds, I grind them up before mixing them in. The birds (especially the Blues) just love it.
terrene
12 years ago
This winter is the 6th winter I've been feeding a small flock of Bluebirds a home-made suet or lard mixture. I melt the fat in a glass bowl in the micro, and then add peanut butter, nuts, flour, corn meal, ground eggshells, etc. The birds love it but the best thing is that it attracts the Bluebirds!

If the Bluebirds show up, they get special feedings - I call them my "Boosies" and ask them if they want some "nuggies". (Yes, very silly.)

This year there are more Bluebirds coming than any previous year. Some days only 4 will show up, but other days it looks like approx. a dozen. It's hard to tell exactly how many since they are swooping and flying around and perching on several different canopy trees and my bird-watching skills just aren't good enough yet.
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Anyone have any luck feeding your yard birds suet?
Q
Comments (12)
Tony, I'm with you. I have never had any luck with suet of any type or recipe in Florida. I DO think you are more likely to succeed with it in cooler weather because the birds need a much higher energy type food then. And also because many types of suet cakes and mixtures spoil quickly in the heat. But even in winter, my woodpeckers prefer to eat sunflower seeds directly from the tray feeder, and they ALL ignore the suet. I do buy the big SEED cakes (BirdOla, etc) that just look like lots of seeds, peanuts and fruit somehow molded into a large square. You probably know what I mean...there's no suet that you can see, just the seeds & fruit bits. I put that in a wire holder designed just for it, and the goldfinches will eat from that, until it gets too small for their short beaks to reach it through the wire. They still drop shells and a little bit of seed under the feeder, but they can't fling it all over while looking for something they like, so it's much less messy. My goldfinches finally showed up about 3 weeks ago, and I've had as many as 30 in the yard at once. There are at least 4 that are almost completely yellow and black now. Just gorgeous. I haven't seen any buntings or grosbeaks this year, though. And the chipping sparrows left right when the goldfinches showed up. But I'm happy...I have my cardinals back, my white-winged doves are here, and my goldfinches. My seed-eating catbird and my seed-eating Myrtle warbler both left, after stuffing themselves for several weeks. (They obviously didn't get the memo telling them they prefer insects and fruit.) I'm really happy now that the squirrels can't seem to reach the feeders any more. (Still knocking wood, though.) Try one of the big seed cakes and see if you like it! Marcia
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Suet is for the birds...
Q
Comments (11)
Since bacon is a brined meat I doubt you will ever find unsalted bacon except for what is sold as fresh fatback. You can remove much of the salt by putting in a pan of water and heating. Stir while melting. This will disolve some of the salt in the rendered grease into the water. Let the solution set in a cool place to firm the fat. Remove the fat cake that should form on the top and throw away the water. This can be repeated several times to remove additional salt. If your bacon fat is fresh you can dice up potatoes and cook in the water. This is a method that is used by cooks to reduce oversalted dishes. If the bacon fat is fresh the potatoes can be eaten or thrown away. Only eat if the bacon fat is VERY fresh.
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Which birds love suet?
Q
Comments (2)
i live in south west colorado near Durango. My back yard is pinyon and juniper trees and oak brush with native grasses and some shrubs. I don't put out suet trays or raw suet till the winter storms start. the more it snows and blows the more winter birds i get. Mostly juncos with some chickadees and nuthatches. a few towhees and sparrows in winter along with woodpeckers and a few finches. two familys of jays year around with some magpies and starlings and summer oeioles and red wing blackbirds. I started with the metal cages nailed to sides of trees but the towhees and juncos tried but had little success eating from them but the hanging types such as woodpecker and chickadees and nuthatches liked them so i hung a block of wood with a large deep lid on the block to make a platform feeder so the towhees and juncos and the ground feeders could perch either on the sides of the lid or in it to eat. i make up my own suet mixes according to what i have on hand. usually lard or shortning or leftover cooking oils from the deep fryer or from cooking meats ect. i soften it in the microwave just enough to mix in the meat scraps and oats with nuts or dried fruits and berrys and thicken it with cornmeal or grits and laddle it into the plastic trays that raspberrys or blueberrys or other berrys come in from the grocery stores. put the plastic trays in the cages and hang the cages from the limbs. usually close to another limb that the birds can perch on to eat from the cages. If the starlings try to take over the suet trays i hang them away from other limbs so the birds have to hang onto the cages to eat. I scare off the starlings everytime i see them by tapping on the window
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birds not coming to suet feeder
Q
Comments (20)
I have an excellent book which someone gave me called "The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher Birdfeeders and bird Gardens" by Robert Burton & Stephen W. Kress, published by the Audubon Society on Thunder Bay Press. (ISBN 1-57145-186-2) Not only does this book have excellent pictures of birds, it has dozens of plans on how to make bird feeders, nesting boxes, bird baths and how to plant a landscape garden to attract birds. There is one whole chapter devoted to bird feeds and what birds they will attract. In addition to the common seeds and suet mixes they have a long list of table scraps that are great for attracting birds. They suggest making a wire cage and put your meat scraps in it, especially the fats that your trim off cooked hams or beef in addition to ham bones, beef marrow bones and even teh leftover turkey bones. A few other things that i found interesting was cooked spaghetti, cooked rice, uncooked pastry dough, baked potatoes with the skin on and stale cheese. Out of curiosity I baked a potato in the microwave, then sliced it in half and put it on my shelf feeder. It was a big hit with all the birds. Another thing that the birds here seem to like is orange peels. I saw a Blue jay pick up and orange peel that was 1/4 of the orange and fly off with it. If anyone is looking for a great how to book on building bird feeders or bird houses or making their own bird feeds I would highly recommend this one, especially if you are making bird feed because I am a bit skeptical of the health concerns for the birds when i read the recommendations of some books, but I don't think the Audubon Society would steer us wrong.
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kendra2003
12 years ago
Terrene, I'm so glad to hear you have so many Blues showing up this year, since I'm also in MA. Last year ten showed up on the 24th of December and stayed with me all winter. This year I saw a group of ten show up once, check out the feeder and leave. I haven't seen them since. I've been feeding the Bluebirds in the winter for years now, and will be greatly disappointed if they don't come. But if they're coming where you are, perhaps I just need to be patient. Perhaps when the ground is covered in snow they will show up.
terrene
12 years ago
Kendra, I hope they come around and frequent your feeders this winter. I would be disappointed too if they didn't show up. They are definitely the Bluebirds of happiness because I always feel happy to see them!

Mine showed up around New Years Day this year. I haven't seen them the last couple days, which is a little worrisome. They're probably out checking other feeders or eating berries or something. We're having such a mild winter, with little snow, and I figure that their natural food sources would be more accessible.

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