Watching Wildlife

Not all wild birds migrate south in winter. Depending on where you live, you may see nuthatches, cardinals, waxwings, wild pigeons, owls, woodpeckers, chickadees, grosbeaks, finches, redpolls, crossbills, snow buntings, magpies, jays, ravens, crows, house sparrows, and starlings during the winter months.  Winter is a difficult time for those birds that don’t migrate. They endure bitter cold and snowstorms which stress their systems at a time when food is scarce. Berries, fruit and insects are gone, and snow may blanket natural seeds that birds might feed on. Even if you don’t feed birds at other times of the year, winter is a good time to put out a bird feeder or two.

An easy way to get started feeding birds in winter is to make a peanut butter and pine cone feeder. This is a great winter time project to do with your kids.  All you need is a 10” piece of wire or a pipe cleaner, a pine cone, and some crunchy peanut butter (creamy peanut butter will do, but the birds really enjoy the peanut bits in crunchy peanut butter). Wrap one end of the wire securely around the pine cone’s stem. With a knife, pack the peanut butter into all the spaces in the pine cone. If you have some chopped nuts or bird seed, roll the peanut butter-packed pine cone in the nuts or seeds. Using the wire you attached, hang the pine cone from a tree branch so that it is at least five feet above the ground. The birds will love it.

Fatty foods like peanut butter are important for birds in winter. Fat is metabolized into energy much more efficiently than seeds and helps birds maintain their body temperature and endure the cold.

Suet Feeders are another great way to feed birds fatty high energy food in winter. Suet is the hard fat trimmed from veal or beef and it’s an excellent source of energy for birds. You can purchase cakes of suet mixed with seeds, bits of fruit or berries, nuts, corn meal or peanut butter. These fit into most commercial suet feeders and provide a terrific source of nutrition and energy for birds.

Suet feeders come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Whether you render suet to make your own suet cakes (for instructions and recipes, click here) or buy commercial cakes, the simplest way to offer suet to your wild birds is to use the mesh bag from a bag of onions. Just place a suet cake in the mesh bag, twist the neck of the bag securely, and hang it from a tree branch.

If you prefer, you can purchase several styles of suet feeders:

Simple box shaped suet feeders are the least expensive. These are coated wire cages that hold standard size commercial suet cakes. You can buy single feeders that hold one suet cake or double feeders to hold two.

Bottom Feed Suet Feeders are designed for clinging birds such as chickadees, nuthatches, titmice or woodpeckers who like to hang upside down as they feed.

Decorative suet feeders If you’re looking for attractive design as well as a practical way to provide suet to the birds, decorative suet feeders offer a range of attractive designs. Our favorite in this category is Erva’s Seed Cake Suet Bird Feeder.

Whichever way you choose to feed them, feeding birds in winter will provide a much needed nutritional boost for the birds and a rewarding experience for you.