Birds often pick feeding grounds before the snow sets in, so fall is a good time to stock bird feeders. Why not make your own bird food with these simple recipes?

Make Your Own Bird Food

by Jane Lake

Scarlet cardinals, downy woodpeckers, black-capped chickadees and chattering bluejays are among the birds that can enliven your garden landscape with color and song each winter.

Most birds are omnivorous, feeding on bugs and insects as well as seeds, grains, flowers and fruit. Their nutritional needs are much like ours: fat and carbohydrates for energy, protein for body building and reproduction, plus minerals, vitamins and calcium to ensure strong eggshells.

"Since birds often pick out a circuit of feeding grounds before the snow sets in, fall is a good time to select food and stock your bird feeders," says Angela Montin, an interpreter with Kortright Waterfowl Park in Guelph, Ontario. "The birds will come to rely on your feeding station, so if you begin offering seed, be prepared to continue at least until late spring."

The type of food you offer, and its location, will determine which birds come to visit. A good commercial seed mix, with a high proportion of sunflower seeds, will stay dry in a hopper-style feeder and attract larger birds such as cardinals and bluejays. A separate finch feeder, packed with millet and niger seed, is an irresistible invitation to smaller breeds like goldfinches, pine siskins and redpolls.

To give a high-energy boost to chickadees, goldfinches, grosbeaks, woodpeckers and nuthatches, and to discourage thieving squirrels, try hanging plain suet (available at butcher's counters) in a mesh onion bag. Or melt suet in a saucepan, add dry mixed seed, let cool and pack into a cage of wire mesh, with 1/4 to 1/2 inch holes, that you can nail to a tree trunk or pole.

Suet is solid beef fat that is easy to render at home. Simply chop 2 pounds of raw suet in a meat grinder, place in a pot with 1/2 inch of water, and cook in a 350 degree oven for 2 to 3 hours. Strain the liquid fat and use as follows:

Basic Suet Muffins

To 2 cups of rendered suet, add 1 can dog food or 2 cups raisins, 2 cups rolled oats, 1 cup dry breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs and 1 cup of peanut butter. Pour into a cupcake pan, or other suitable molds, and chill. Hang cakes in a mesh bag or fasten with string to a tree.

"Many birds like picking at seed on the ground," says Montin. "They don't like to be exposed, however, so spreading seed under a tree with low-lying branches is a good idea."

Montin suggests buying the makings of this simple recipe from a seed mill:

Ground Toss Bird Food Mix

4 parts cracked corn
1 part white millet
1 part sunflower seeds (preferably black-oil type)

Mix together, toss out a handful or two, or spread on a split-log table to attract ground feeders such as blackbirds, cardinals and robins.

By providing a variety of simple bird food recipes, you can attract a wide range of birds to your garden. Just be sure to keep binoculars handy, along with a basic field guide to birds to keep track of all your feathered visitors.

First published in Highlights Magazine