Homemade bird treats are an effective way to ensure the wellbeing of your feathered friends during colder weather conditions and can even provide a fun family activity on rainy days!
Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of bread slices, drizzle with Manuka honey and bake at 250 degrees for five minutes before hanging outside or placing them in feeders.
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Peanut Butter Suet
Peanut butter suet provides birds with a protein-rich snack during winter when insects and berries become scarce, helping them retain body fat. This simple recipe attracts bluebirds, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and more! For added appeal dried fruit or chopped nuts may also be included for extra interest.
This simple and year-round bird feeder recipe can be enjoyed from traditional hanging bird feeders as well as suet blocks made with lard suet. Melt one pound of lard and mix in equal parts of peanut butter before stirring in some quick oats, corn meal, and birdseed until combined and shaping into blocks. Refrigerate to set.
Make the classic peanut butter seed ball an enjoyable project with kids on a rainy or cold weather day – cookie cutters work well here – using twine or yard to help hold it together and cookie cutters for intricate shapes. Perfect as an indoor activity when outdoor play cannot take place!
Fruits
Birds love consuming various fruits. Some popular and healthy choices for wild birds include mango, pomegranate, bananas, cantaloupe and apples.
Fruits offer essential vitamins and nutrients often neglected in bird diets. Plus, they’re an excellent source of protein!
Add fruit and nuts together for an appealing treat for your feathered friend. A mix of dried cherries and cranberries combined with shell-free peanuts provides an energy-packed snack that will draw in all sorts of wild birds.
Peanut butter suet is another simple treat that requires only minimal preparation: just combine lard with one cup of peanut butter, mix in oatmeal and cornmeal, add seeds or chopped fruit and nuts and shape the mixture into hearts or circles before punching a hole for string or wire to hang it outside.
Nuts
Suet treats with nuts are an excellent way to attract winter birds, though make sure that any unsalted peanuts you add do not contain salt as too much of this can lead to dehydration in wild birds. Apples and berries are also appetizing but should be cut finely to prevent too much swelling in their stomachs.
Nijer (also referred to as niger or nyjer weed) and sunflower seeds provide highly nutritious food sources for wild birds, so they should be served in either a dedicated feeder for these seeds, or in an individual container of mixed bird seed.
If you want to hang bird treats, add lengths of natural rough twine or ribbon. For best results, tie the twine before the treats have solidified; doing it afterwards could damage them and even result in breaking. Additionally, for safety purposes it’s wise to use a hook or hanging method that doesn’t pose a choking hazard to young children.
Cereals
As winter nears, all the feathered friends in your yard will need ways to stay warm and eat. While you could visit a pet store and buy bags of birdseed, making homemade treats from food items in your pantry may be a more cost-effective way of satisfying their desires.
Start off this recipe using either lard or peanut butter combined with seeds, nuts, fruit and cereals to form a pinecone shape and roll it in birdseed such as black-oil sunflower seed or nyjer (sometimes listed as ‘niger”). Hang your bird treat outside to watch your feathered friends enjoy their special snack!
Many are tempted to use leftover bread as homemade treats for birds, but this could actually prove harmful as well as lacking nutritional value – in addition to possibly harboring mold that could make the birds sick.