Making Treats For The Birds

Making treats for the birds is fun activity for all ages and in particular a great way to connect kids with nature. Make a single treat for our feathered friends or several to decorate a tree in your yard or to give to family and friends. Here are some fun and easy recipes for making treats for the birds. We’d love to see any treats you make and hang for the birds. Be sure to share some photos with us by tagging @WildBirdsJoliet on Instagram or Facebook or use the hashtags #WBUJoliet.

Suet Stuffing

  • 1 Cup chunky all natural peanut butter.
  • 1 Cup WBU Simply Suet® (pure rendered suet).
  • 2½ Cups coarse yellow cornmeal. WBU Seed Blend (No-Mess, Choice Plus, Choice, Supreme), raisins, peanuts or other tree nuts (optional).
  • WBU Seed Blend (No-Mess, Choice Plus, Choice, Supreme), raisins, peanuts or other tree nuts (optional).
  1. Soften suet.
  2. Mix peanut butter, suet and cornmeal together.
  3. Stir in birdseed, raisins or peanuts if desired.
  4. Pine Cone Feeder
  5. Pack Birdacious® Bark Butter® into pine cones.
  6. Roll pine cones in WBU Seed Blend.
  7. Hang with string or ribbon from a tree.

Pine Cone Feeder

  1. Pack Birdacious® Bark Butter® into pine cones.
  2. Roll pine cones in WBU Seed Blend.
  3. Hang with string or ribbon from a tree.

Suet “Muffins”

  1. Secure a piece of heavy craft paper to the bottom of a pipe cleaner.
  2. Place in muffin tin cup. Spoon in Suet Stuffing.
  3. Repeat for each muffin cup.
  4. Place the muffins in the freezer to harden.
  5. Once hardened, remove from the tin and hang the suet muffins on a tree or, if temperature is above freezing, place in feeding stations.

Fruit Peel Feeder

  1. Poke three holes in the edges of a hollowed-out grapefruit half or orange half.
  2. Run twine through the holes.
  3. Spoon Suet Stuffing into grapefruit; sprinkle WBU Seed Blend on top, and place in the freezer to harden.
  4. Once hardened, knot the strings at the top and the bottom to secure.
  5. Hang outside near a window.

Bagel Feeder 

  1. Split bagels in half and harden overnight.
  2. Spread peanut butter or Bark Butter® on each side and then sprinkle with WBU Seed Blend.
  3. Tie a string through the hole, and hang from a tree.

Wild Bird Seed Cookies (Makes 2-3 Dozen)

  • 2 Cups flour.
  • ½ Tsp. baking powder.
  • ½ Cup sugar.
  • 2/3 Cup WBU Simply Suet® (pure rendered suet).
  • 2 Eggs.
  • 2/3 Cup WBU Seed Blend.
  • Macaroni elbows or ditali pasta pieces used as hangers. (need one per cookie)
  • 1 Egg white for wash.
  • 1 Cup WBU Seed Blend for garnish.
  • Bird-shaped cookie cutters.
  • Yarn or twine to hang cookies.
  1. Sift dry ingredients together
  2. Cut in suet with pastry blender or fork until crumbly.
  3. Add eggs and mix.
  4. Add WBU Seed Blend.
  5. Turn out onto lightly floured board and knead until smooth.
  6. Wrap in wax paper, seal in plastic bag and chill for at least an hour.
  7. Roll out on lightly floured surface to ¼” thickness.
  8. Cut out bird shapes.
  9. Press in macaroni piece towards the top of each cookie for ease in hanging.
  10. Brush cookies with slightly beaten egg white.
  11. Press more WBU Seed Blend over the top of each cookie.
  12. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
  13. Bake at 325° F for 12-15 minutes or until cookies harden.
  14. Cool and hang.

 

Bird Treat Garland

Decorations that can be strung and placed on the tree include popcorn, fresh cranberries, thick fresh orange slices, fresh apple slices, peanuts in the shell, dried apples or dried figs on heavy string. You can also hang rice cakes with string, fresh crab apples by the stem, baby dried corn bundles, dried ears of colorful corn husks, or red seedless grapes tied up in bunches.

Natural rough brown string, ribbon and raffia can be used for hanging the decorations. Also, consider decorating with lengths of natural wool. The birds will use this material for nesting in the spring.

Holiday Wreath For the Birds                                                                    

  • 14” Grape Wreath, about $5 at a hobby/craft store
  • Small bag of cranberries
  • 1 Tub of Bark Butter
  • 3 pine cones
  • WBU Bird Seed Blend of choice
  • 13oz. dried fruit mix container
  • 1 orange
  • Ever green clippings from a tree in your yard or woods
  • 3 halves of a bagel. (Tip cut the bagel the night before so they can sit out and dry, making it easier to spread the Bark Butter.)
  • Three small terra cotta pots- about 60 cents at a hobby/craft store
  • Florist wire, 24 gauge, in 18 – 24” length (Note: Do not buy paddle wire, you need this wire to be straight, which makes it easier to weave through the wreath.)
    1. Wind the florist wire around the base of the pine cones. This is so you can secure the pine cones to the wreath.
    2. Smear the pine cones with bark butter; use a fork and your hands to get the Bark Butter into the scales of the pine cones. Go crazy and squeeze cranberries in between the scales, then apply the Bark Butter.
    3. Roll the pine cones in the bird seed blend. Press/squeeze the seed into the Bark Butter, to ensure the seed is mushed into the Bark Butter
    4. Secure the florist wire to the miniature terra cotta pots by running the florist wire through the bottom and over the side of the pot. Fill the pot with Bark Butter and top it with bird seed.

    5. Smear the bagel with Bark Butter and press bird seed into the Bark Butter and give the bagel a good squeeze. (The hardest part is securing the florist wire to the bagel. First string the florist wire with several cranberries, or pieces of dried fruit. Center the berries on the wire. Place a sprig of greenery over the center of the bagel; basically cover the hole in the bagel. Bend the wire on either side of the cranberries down 90 degrees, sticking them through the bagel, one on either side of the sprig of greener)

    6. Follow the same steps as preparing the bagels to prepare the orange slices, except you do not smear the oranges with Bark Butter.

    7. Securing the food to the wreath. Start by selecting one of your foods and tying it to the wreath by weaving the wire ends through the wreath so they come out on the back side of the wreath then twist the wire tightly to the wreath so it is secure. Clip off the extra florist wire. Repeat for each food item.

    8. Accessorizing / Turning it into a gift. Add additional greenery to wreath in between the foods. To jazz up the wreath for a gift, add colorful bows and raffia.

 Decorate a Tree For the Birds