i have googled use of bacon grease and also bing search and asked about it with a bunch of different audubon societys in different states. the majority of them recomend useing bacon grease as long as the birds have sufficient water supplys. I have used bacon grease for many years and have lots of birds but i do keep fresh water or heated water trays in winter. I usually mix equal parts of suet or lard or bacon grease or tallow or shortning with peanut butter and add some chopped nuts and then thicken it with cornmeal and rolled oats or grits or flour to make a paste. we don't eat a lot of bacon or fatty meats anymore but do save the fats and freeze them. and mix whatever i have on hand into the mix and the bacon grease is usually pretty well diluted down. Most say it attracts the woodpeckers and chickadees and nuthatches but i get almost every kind of bird i get eating mine. including the jays and juncos and finches ect.

This is what I found online: "It's true; you can use salted butter in place of unsalted butter in most recipes. The only problem will be that unless you reduce the amount of salt the recipe calls for -- usually by about a quarter teaspoon per stick of butter -- the dish will taste saltier than intended. For strongly flavored foods, like sweets made with chocolate or spices, or for most savory dishes, you probably won't taste a difference. But for more delicate preparations -- like shortbread, butter cookies or a plain white sauce -- the extra salt may be noticeable. Unsalted butter is called for in many recipes because all salted butter is not salted in the same proportion. Therefore, using unsalted butter and adding your own salt gives the cook much more control. And some culinary professionals say that since salted butter has a longer shelf life than unsalted, it may not be as fresh."

I keep it simple, and use just one sort of butter for almost everything. Unsalted American butter. Land O Lakes, usually, because someone showed me, 30 years ago, that if you take two Land O Lakes packages, cut the maiden's knees from one package, and glue that piece onto the chest of the maiden on the other package, her knees look just like breasts. It was a silly little gag that got me thinking about subliminal advertising and still makes me giggle today. So I guess the advertising worked. Sometimes I buy a European butter, for spreading. But practically all of my butter use is for cooking. I don't eat buttered toast or croissants but once in a blue moon.

Cookie8: Are you making a statement or asking a question? Not trying to be picky here, just curious. Personally, I wouldn't use the grease/oil I'd get from frying meat of any kind to make bird food but that's just me. The spices you mentioned probably wouldn't do any harm but on the other hand, probably won't do the birds any good either. If the argument is that purchased lard is just a refined/rendered fat from (in this case) pork and isn't any different than oil/fat rendered from home frying/cooking of some meat product, I'll have to disagree.