How to Make Special Treats for Wild Birds

We all love to feed the birds in our back yard, and the bird food available at your local store will definitely make them happy. However, it can be even more fun to make some special treats for your birds. Here are some suggestions:

Flavored Suet and Suet Substitutes:

Flavored Suet
Suet is a high-energy food that contains protein and fat. Insect-eating birds love the stuff. You can buy blocks of suet for your birds, or render your own if your local butcher is willing to sell you some of the hard white fat the cut off beef.

If the weather is cold, the fat can be put out as it comes from the butcher, but warm weather will melt the suet and cause it to become rancid. In the summer you'll need to render the fat by cutting it into small pieces, or asking the butcher to grind it up. You'll then put the small pieces of suet in a heavy pan or double boiler and cook it over medium heat until it starts to melt. Reduce the heat and allow the fat to harden again, and cool. Then do the process over again.

When the suet is cooling, you can add some special treats. For each cup of melted fat, choose one of the following combinations:

½ cup rolled oats
½ cup raisins or peanuts
½ cup cornmeal
½ cup birdseed.

Or:

½ cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup sunflower seeds or mixed grains

You can now pour the melted fat into forms (like tuna-fish cans) and cool in the refrigerator.

Sweetened Suet for Young Birds
Melt 2 parts suet, allow to thicken slightly, and stir in 1 part peanut butter and ½ part apple or grape jelly. Young birds will love the sweetness, and they will greatly benefit from the protein and energy in the fat. You can cool the suet in disposable plastic trays, like the ones you get in small TV dinners. If larger animals tend to steal the treats, you could nail trays to the top of a fence before pouring in the sweetened suet.

Suet Substitute
In the summer, suet may get rancid too quickly. You can make a nice suet substitute for birds like tanagers, thrushes, and warblers by mixing 1 part flour, 3 to 4 parts yellow cornmeal, 1 part peanut butter and 1 part vegetable shortening. "Serve" the suet substitute in trays, like the sweetened suet above.

Treats for Baby Birds:

The following recipes are great for fledgling songbirds in spring and early summer. The recipes containing dairy foods should only be used if you can set out small quantities several times a day. The cottage cheese and milk will spoil quickly.

Cottage Cheese and Fruit
To make, stir berries, currants, raisins or grapes into cottage cheese and "serve."
Bread and Milk
For the babies, mix a small amount of sugar into some milk, and then soak pieces of white bread in the sweetened milk.

Treats for Adult Birds:

Cornmeal, Fruit and Bacon Fat
Mix 1 part water with 1 part cornmeal. In a small saucepan, bring 4 parts water to a boil and stir in the cornmeal mixture. Boil for one minute and remove from heat. Pour the heated mixture in a shallow pan and stir in fruit (mashed bananas, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, etc.), and cool. When the cornmeal has cooled and is fairly solid, form into patties, dust with flour and fry in bacon drippings.

Leftover Cooked Cereal
This is not really a recipe - but it is a nice way to use up cooked oatmeal or other cereals that your family doesn't eat. To make the cereal an even better treat for birds, stir in bits of fruit or some peanut butter and allow to cool.

Leftover Bread
What is bread except seeds (from wheat) that has been ground and cooked? Seed-eating birds can clear up your leftover baked goods - it isn't just ducks and geese that like a bit of bread. Of course, your pets will enjoy it too, so be sure to put the breadcrumbs in a spot where your dogs can't get to them.

These recipes are a bit more trouble than pouring some store-bought bird food into the bird feeder, but your favorite backyard birds will appreciate the extra effort. You can find many more great ideas for making your birds happy in the book Country Wisdom & Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Live Off the Land from Storey Books.