Birds adore peanut butter, but ensure to use unsalted varieties as salt dehydrates birds. Dried fruit such as berries or currants also make tasty snacks while being nutritiously satisfying for birds.
DIY Wild Bird Treats make an enjoyable rainy-day project for children of all ages. When making these treats yourself, the cost can be considerably less than purchasing commercial suet blocks.
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Suet
Suet is a high-energy food, essential in winter when birds use energy to stay warm. Suet attracts woodpeckers, chickadees, flickers, nuthatches, wrens and more!
Raw suet can be used as a feeder, but rendering and/or freezing are the ideal methods of preparation before feeding it to birds. This process helps maintain its structure while making it easier to handle. Furthermore, freezing prevents rancidity from taking hold and damaging birds’ feathers through ingestion of rancid foods.
Suet cakes typically contain beef suet, which is typically mixed with seeds, nuts, bits of fruit and even dried mealworms to attract more species. But many people also make vegetarian or vegan versions using lard or vegetable shortening instead of beef fat (making the cakes vegetarian or vegan). Other kinds of animal fat may not be safe for wild birds due to low melting points that might become too soft to support all the dry ingredients that make up a suet cake.
Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is an easy and popular choice for creating bird treats that children can easily use – plus the birds seem to enjoy eating it!
Choose natural peanut butter without added sugar, oil, or preservatives when purchasing peanut butter. This type is produced by grinding up whole peanuts into a creamy spread that requires constant stirring to combine the oil with solids in its composition. However, this variety has a limited shelf life and should always be refrigerated after opening.
Add fruits, nuts, seeds and cereals to peanut butter to make DIY wild bird treats that are fun for kids to make. It’s also an enjoyable rainy-day activity that can be done indoors or outside in the backyard. Once pressed into molds, this mixture can be placed into suet feeders or hang from trees for birds to enjoy! This easy recipe can be tailored according to any specific tastes.
Fruit
Wild birds love fruit as treats! You can offer chopped apples, pears and oranges or even an apple core filled with peanuts as treats for wild birds. Add flour or half fat (never cooking oil as this could damage feathers) for binding, plus sunflower hearts and nyger seeds (sometimes listed as niger seed) as optional ingredients; mould the mixture into shapes to hang from feeders or branches.
Nuts
Nuts are indehiscent seeds that do not open and release their seeds (hard shell). Wild birds love eating nuts and can make a welcome addition to any backyard feeder.
Nuts can be fed whole in their shells to attract woodpeckers, jays and chickadees; or chopped into smaller pieces so goldfinches and titmice can easily grab hold. Nuts are also often included as part of mixed bird feed mixes – particularly during the colder winter months when additional energy is necessary.
Peanuts are one of the most frequently offered nuts to backyard birds. Whole peanuts tend to attract larger species while kibbled or chipped varieties appeal more strongly to smaller birds such as chickadees and nuthatches. Peanuts can be placed in feeders such as hopper, gazebo and tube feeders or used as binding agents in homemade suet blocks, fat balls or cake recipes.
