The-Artistic-Garden's Blog

Foods to Attract More Wild Birds for Your Enjoyment

Many of us LOVE attracting wild birds to our backyards and surrounding property just for the joy of watching them. I’m one of those people. I’ve had bird feeders in my yard for many, many years and have filled my feeders with hundreds, now probably thousands, of pounds of Black Oiler sunflower seeds (my wild bird food of choice) too. I’ve also had good luck attracting birds with safflower seeds – loved by gold finches (and to deter the squirrels) – and suet placed in suet cages that all the birds gobble up.

But sometimes, people do have trouble attracting more than just a few birds, and wonder what else they can try. Well … here’s some ideas you probably haven’t heard about, and a couple you probably have, but maybe were skeptical to try.

Grape Jelly

Grape jelly, fed in a VERY SMALL portion like a tablespoon full at most, is favored by wild birds such as woodpeckers, orioles, tanagers, finches and many others, too.

Again I will stress – please only feed a spoonful. Place in a small shallow dish or you can use a jar lid.

The sugar content in the grape jelly makes it a high-energy food for feeder birds. But … don’t overdo it, as the sugar content is not at a normal level for the birds, let alone the artificial coloring.

Oh … and it looks like grape jelly is the #1 jelly of choice to feed. However, try other fruit jellies. You may find that another flavor will also attract lots of birds. I mean … what’s wrong with trying flavors like raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, or currant?

Note: Many experts will argue that feeding grape jelly is a bad thing to do. And I can see why, because as I stated above, grape jelly and its sugar content isn’t “normal” for wild birds. However, I don’t see why a little jelly fed occasionally, especially in the beginning stages of trying to attract more feathered friends onto your property, is a horribly bad thing to do.

Here’s a link to an informative post on “Laura’s Birding Blog” discussing this very topic on the pros and cons of feeding jelly.

Fruits

Feeding fruit is probably the more commonly suggested method to help attract wild birds. But, with the rising cost of fruit these days, especially for those of us that don’t live in regions close to fruit growers and orchards, many of us may not be able to keep a constant supply of fresh orange halves, pomegranate halves or apple halves available for the birds. But perhaps occasionally you can try putting out fruit. All types of birds enjoy fruit. Even grapes will be eaten.

You can secure the fruit halves or sections to the side of a tree by pounding a long nail into the tree, and then pushing the fruit onto the nail (yes, you may have to wiggle it a bit to get it past the nail head); or place it in a suet basket. There are other methods, like piercing the fruit with a dowel and then hanging the dowel, which has a rope loop secured to both ends of the dowel.

As long as you can secure the fruit in some way to help the birds get to the fleshy part, and to keep it from getting carried away by other predators … you’ll be good to go.

Berries

Whether picked fresh berries, or store bought ones – even those that are a bit shriveled up but not bad enough to throw out – will be appreciated by your feathered friends and will of course help attract more to your property.

Berries that wild birds seem to love are: wild grapes, pokeberries, sassafras berries, and even sumac berries. If you’re like me and really don’t have access to wild berries, then use store-bought ones.

Store-bought berries to feed can be: blueberries, raspberries, and cherries.

Mama Mia! Try Pasta!

“Pasta?” you say. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

Nope, I’m not. I’ve read about many people feeding SMALL AMOUNTS of plain boiled pasta with success. Many birds, from titmice to woodpeckers will chow down on pasta. If you decide to give this food a try, I will suggest trying to offer it during drier weather.

Please …. just don’t include the spaghetti sauce and meatballs!

Eggshells

The calcium in eggshells is beneficial for female birds during the nesting season. But your wild bird friends will also benefit from the extra calciuim during the winter months. So save up some eggshells – make sure to rinse them out in the sink first – and then place them in a shallow pan. Bake the eggshells in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes. This “purifying” method eliminates any chance that your wild birds will be exposed to harmful bacteria that could be passed on from domestic chickens.

You can place crushed eggshells in a small dish, scattered on your garden soil, or even sprinkled on your sidewalk or patio. You’ll soon find that the birds will be happily nibbling up the eggshell pieces.

My Favorite Peanut Butter Suet Recipe

Before I end this post, I thought I’d place a link to my easy homemade bird suet recipe. I’ve received some nice feedback via private email from people who have tried it and are now getting more birds in their yards. Plus, they remark how easy it is to make and how much cheaper it is than buying store bought.

I hope you give one or more of these foods a try, and that you’re able to attract more wild birds in no time.

Bird Suet Recipes With Peanut Butter as an Ingredient are Not Dangerous

I received a comment from Consuelo on a previous post about making your own bird suet. She wanted to share information she’d found about peanut butter being potentially dangerous to certain bird species. Peanut butter is one of the ingredients I recommend using for the suet recipe.

I’d like to add a more detailed response to her comment here in a post, so that it properly addresses this subject and provides more information for those of you who perhaps have landed here, looking for information about “potential hazards of using peanut butter in a bird suet recipe”.

If You Are Really Concerned About a Bird Choking On Peanut Butter …Then Do Not Feed Peanut Butter All By Itself! Add a Gritty Ingredient as Well

Through my research to determine if what Consuelo shared was correct information or not, and of course to educate myself about the “hazards of feeding peanut butter to birds”, the bottom line from all trusted authority sites is:

There is no documented evidence that birds will choke (or die) from ingesting peanut butter all by itself. However, mixing peanut butter with grit or cornmeal or oatmeal will break up the stickiness and can give peace of mind to those who might be
concerned.

My recipe calls for cornmeal. So, in my humble opinion, there is nothing “dangerous” about any bird suet cake that has peanut butter as an ingredient if that cake also has a “gritty” ingredient, too.

More Resource Links With Information About Peanut Butter in Bird Suet Recipes

Everyone, please take a look at the following information I have uncovered from very reliable sources. Come to your own conclusions, but I believe you need not worry one bit about adding peanut butter into a recipe for making suet cakes.

Here are just a few of the better links I discovered with not only information about peanut butter in suet, but other great bird feeding information as well:

• Bird Feeding Basics from the National Audubon Society. Please look at the topic: “Mix peanut butter and corn meal”
• Backyard Bird Feeding from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Conservation Library. Look about 3/4′s of the way down to: “Can birds choke on peanut butter?”
• Feeding the Birds from the Massachusetts Audubon Society. About 1/3 of the way down, look for the topic: “Peanut Butter”.

There … with the above information I’ve provided I do hope the issue of feeding peanut butter to our backyard birds, whether it’s an ingredient in a store bought suet cake or in a homemade bird suet recipe, will no longer be a concern for anyone. Happy birding!

This Bird Suet Recipe Will Save You Money and the Birds Will Love It!

Since cold weather has descended upon most all of the United States, our little feathered friends are now either flying to warmer places, or staying behind. I tend to feel sorry for the little guys who have to brave the cold, frost and snow. (How do they keep those skinny little feet of theirs warm while clinging to frozen branches?)

I have been making this homemade bird suet recipe for years. And not just for cold weather, either. It will hold up surprisingly well even in hot-hot temperatures.

Even though I know “experts” tell us that we don’t have to worry about putting out seed or bird suet during the months when bugs and such are plentiful, I often do. Guess I just like attracting and watching more birds in my yard.

Anyway … since I made up a batch the other day to specifically try to attract bluebirds and woodpeckers to my suet feeder (I enjoy watching them), I thought I’d share this simple bird suet recipe that I haven’t deviated from for more years than I can remember. And it’s never failed me, or the birds!

First, I’ll give you the basic “small batch” suet recipe, and then get into the tweaks and variations that can branch off from there.

Basic Bird Suet Recipe

• 1 cup vegetable shortening or lard
• 1 cup chunky peanut butter
• 2 cups regular unbleached or bleached flour
• 3 cups yellow cornmeal

1. Melt shortening/lard and peanut butter in large pot on stovetop using medium heat; remove
    from heat when melted.
2. Measure all the flour and cornmeal right into the pot.
3. Stir, stir, stir until everything is thoroughly blended.
4. Place mixture into your desired containers or as my friend Barbara has done, just pat up a
    handful and sort of make a hamburger patty type shape. *Note: I spray my containers with
    Pam as it does help the cakes come out cleaner from the containers.
5. Set your containers or patties into the refrigerator to set and then use as needed.

NOTE: I know many people do not refrigerate the suet cakes, as the shortening/lard will ultimately set up hard. But I like to keep my suet cakes in the frig not only to make them set up really nice and hard, but also to preserve the freshness, especially if I make up larger batches and I know it’ll take a couple of months to go through all the cakes I made.

**I can make three suet cakes from the “small batch” recipe that will fit into my hanging suet cage. I use suet containers I saved from store-bought suet to form the cakes. I used to buy bird suet back when I didn’t know about making my own and how cheap and really easy it is to make! And I’ve been reusing these containers for years. Here’s a photo of the recipe in a (recycled) container and after it’s taken out of the container.

“Big Batch” Basic Bird Suet Recipe

• 5 lb. (pound) tub vegetable shortening or lard
• 2-1/2 lbs. (normally sold in large jar size) chunky peanut butter
• 3 lbs. regular unbleached or bleached flour
• 5 lbs. yellow cornmeal

About the shortening or lard: I personally like using lard. Plus it saves you money over buying “Crisco” vegetable shortening, as example. You’ll find tubs of lard in the baking section or sometimes near the butter. My grocery store stocks “Armour” brand.

About the chunky peanut butter: Again, as a cost saving measure, I buy large jars of Wal-Mart’s chunky pb. Plus, cheaper brands tend to have more oil in it – a good thing for the birds.

About the flour: I’ve used bleached, unbleached, and even whole wheat.

About the cornmeal: Don’t buy “cornmeal mix” – it has baking powder in it and that is not a necessary ingredient. You could use white cornmeal, but it usually costs more. Here again, I buy bags of Wal-Mart’s brand. (I think it was 99-cents for a 5 lb. bag last time I bought some.)

For All You Health-Conscious Bird Lovers

Yes, yes it is important to provide the best level of nutrition we can to other species, other than ourselves! And though I admit I am not a fanatic about buying the “very best” ingredients when making this homemade suet recipe, I certainly wouldn’t discourage you from NOT doing so.

So … here’s a few thoughts on this issue:

Stone ground or water ground flour and cornmeal, which you can sometimes find in grocery stores, or certainly in health food stores, are better than bleached, or even unbleached flours such as “Pillsbury” or “Gold Medal”; or degerminated cornmeal such as the “Quaker” brand. Normally processed flours and cornmeals have improved shelf lives, but on the flip side they lack the healthy germ oils, and fiber.

Other Additions You Can Add to the Suet

• some chopped nuts – almost any variety is OK – unsalted is preferable
• raisins, dried currants, chopped prunes, chopped dried cherries, or apple bits (I’ve read
   mockingbirds like dried apples, prunes and raisins – can’t tell you for sure or not.)
• sunflower seeds or chips – unshelled
• rolled oats or plain instant oats
• mixed birdseed

I’ve read about this addition, too, but have never tried it: powdered Thai chili to keep squirrels away – inexpensive and better than cayenne pepper or dry mustard. It was stated to add Thai chili VERY carefully – it’s hot enough to cause a human grief.

Bird Suet Cage Options

There are many ways you can offer the homemade suet to the birds. I like the simple hanging cage that I can slip a block of suet into, and the cage hangs from a nail on the side of a tree.

In this way birds like chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers can grab on to the tree bark and then feed from the feeder. But, birds will also just fly right onto the cage, latch on and take a few pecks.

There are lots of different cage styles to choose from – some pretty inexpensive (like the simple cage I use) on up to suet houses. If you’re not familiar, here’s a link to Google images for bird suet cages.

If you’ve never tried feeding your bird friends suet, or never have tried making your own, please do! I think you’ll find this homemade bird suet recipe really is quick and easy, and that you’ll have more variety of birds coming to your yard, even in the coldest of weather.

Spring Time Heralds The Return Of
My Favorite Birds – The Hummingbirds

This is such a fun time of year … I start to be on the look-out for the first Ruby-throated Hummingbird to make its appearance at my house. Last night I figured I had better make up a small batch of my trusted hummingbird syrup nectar recipe. (Recipe is down below.)

Even though hummingbirds typically arrive in the greater Nashville area around mid-March, I live about 40 miles south of the Music City and thusly it seems it is never until right around April 15th (yes, TAX day!) that I get to see one.

I don’t know if you are a hummingbird lover like I am, but if not … I encourage you to give it a try this year and make a batch of hummingbird syrup and place a feeder out in your garden or better yet, hang one outside a window. This way you’ll get to see all the cute antics and buzzing around they do. Hummers are very entertaining, for sure.

Once you hang out a feeder, I’ll bet it won’t be too long thereafter that you’ll have these little marvels buzzing and chirping all over your garden until Fall comes. Some of you in warmer climates, or other parts of the world may never be without these little fellas gracing your garden. You’re lucky.

So, since I am now officially on the hummingbird look-out, that means I’ve already made my batch of hummingbird syrup and have hung out the feeder. Then it dawnd on me to post and give a heads-up to the rest of you to not forget “it’s hummer time of the year”. Are you ready for them?

I also thought I’d pass along the homemade syrup recipe I use and to also direct you to a website that will certainly prove to be helpful and interesting, especially if you’re new to the joys of hummingbirds. Those of you who already are into hummers may not be aware of this site. There’s tons of good info, photos and such.

I will highly recommend visiting Hummingbirds.net which I found many years ago and have found it to be a trusty source of information and also the migration maps that are on that site are something I check every year. That’s where I saw that on March 28th this year, a Ruby-throat was spotted in Nashville and recorded.

Don’t Buy Expensive Store-Bought Nectar! Make Your Own

Not that I want to take a sale away from any retail establishment, but I learned early on that the packaged hummingbird nectar mix being sold is way too expensive as compared to how simple it is to make, but also that the red coloring that is put into the commercial mixes is possibly very BAD health-wise for these little guys. I have read in more than one place that red dye could cause tumors in hummingbirds.

Plus, they do NOT need to see a RED feeder or RED nectar solution in order to find it, or to be attracted to it. I can state this for a fact as:
     A) I had one feeder whose red feeder base got very bleached out by the sun, and it was more of a dull beige and those hummers never minded one bit! They found it without trouble, and;
     B) In all my feeders I only use my homemade nectar and it is crystal clear. Again … those hummers can always find the feeders, day in and day out.

Here’s the artificial nectar/syrup recipe I have used for years, and it’s one that you will find all over the internet and in hummingbird books. You can trust this one as being correct.

1. Use one part ordinary white cane sugar to four parts water. Mix until sugar is thoroughly dissolved. As example: 1 cup of sugar + 4 cups of water.

   Though it is not necessary to boil the sugar and water mixture, I do. It certainly helps to dissolve the sugar quickly. The reason people think they have to boil the mixture is to “kill” the microorganisms that cause fermentation in the syrup. But this just isn’t true. The microorganisms actually are transported to the feeder on hummingbird bills. This is why CLEANING your feeder and replenishing the syrup regularly is most important.

2. Store unused syrup in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Once you get the hang of how quickly you’ll be going through the syrup, you’ll know what size batches to mix up. Me … I only get a maximum of 4 hummers late in the summer. So they don’t consume too much.

   But I know of a hummer-lover who gets so many at her home that she uses up 5 lbs. of sugar every week! Whoa … she has so many hummingbirds flying around you wouldn’t believe it. (Yes … I am sort of jealous. Well, maybe just half as many as she gets would be fabulous!)

This homemade hummingbird syrup approximates the average sucrose content (about 21%) of the flowers that are favored by North American hummingbirds.

**Word of caution: Do NOT, I repeat do NOT add more sugar to the recipe thinking you will be doing the hummers a favor. It doesn’t work that way. Just like with us humans, a little sugar is OK, but too much is detrimental to our health.

It’s the same with hummingbirds. Plus they will be feeding from real flowers, so rest assured they are getting the nutrients they need. Just stick to the proportions of water + sugar in the recipe.

Oh, lest I forget, I don’t care what you read … everyone I know who feeds hummers has ants and other flying bugs getting attracted to the feeder. There are easy ways to combate this. I encourage you to look for the answer to this on the site I have referred you to.

My solution to combat ants is to use a little cup thingie that hangs in the middle of the feeder hanger. I found one at Wal-Mart for 98-cents. It holds water (or you can put a little cooking oil into it) and when the ants try to climb down the feeder hanger to try to get to the feeder openings, they can’t. They hit the water (or oil) in the cup’s bottom and that’s as far as they can go. Works like a charm for me!

And before I end this post, I had to include this photo that is another shot taken along with the one up above. I am sooo jealous of her …

Get your hummingbird syrup ready … get your feeder positioned … and wait for the fun to begin!