Winter is a stressful time of year for the birds in your neighborhood for many reasons. Since birds are warm blooded creatures, so they need more energy just to stay warm. But plants have gone dormant, there are few insects to be found, and what food is available is often hidden under the snow. So what are some things we can do to keep them fed?
A common feeder used for feeding birds in the wintertime is a suet bird feeder. So what is suet, and why do you use it in a bird feeder, especially in the winter?
Suet is often used for winter time feeding because it holds up to cold weather well, is a high energy source of food for the birds, and the suet cakes can last a while so you aren't constantly refilling the feeder.
Suet comes from raw beef or mutton fat. A lot of the time it is made from the hard fat found around the loins and kidneys. It was a common material in colonial times as it had many uses like candle-making. But it was not just the raw fat that could be used. It has to go through a process called rendering. This involves heating the fat and cooking off the wax like material, while leaving the meat and bone for other uses. The result is a wax like material which can be shaped and used in a variety of ways.
Once you have the raw suet, it is usually prepared in a block similar in shape to a sandwich. To this you can add other ingredients like bird seed and peanuts which are mixed in so they are embedded in the block. This results in a block of high energy food that will survive well in the wintertime, but note it can go rancid in the summer heat. Most people will just purchase the suet blocks, but you can also find a variety of suet recipes which are tailored for different bird types.
Usually a suet feeder looks like of a small wire cage feeder where the suet block is placed. This may be placed on the trunk of a tree or suspended from a branch. Another common style is a bird feeder that has the usual hopper for seed, and has suet cages on the sides to hold the cakes. Another way you can use suet it to smear it onto pine cones which can be hung from a branch.
With a suet bird feeder you can attract a large variety of birds, including woodpeckers, goldfinches, juncos, cardinals, thrushes, jays, bluebirds and wrens. If you have problems with starlings you might want to use a suet bird feeder that only allows access from the bottom, since starling can't hang upside down. For problems with squirrels you need to make sure that climbing access is limited, and you may need to use to baffles to keep them away.
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