Basically, the recipe is 1 part lard and 1 part chunky peanut butter melted in the microwave. There are also many differently shaped metal cages for suet balls. These can be placed in the open on platform feeders. But they can also be hung from hooks under the eaves. The most common way to place a cage-style suet feeder is to hang it from a shepherd's hook pole. It is easy to clean and replace the suet blocks. The metal cage keeps larger birds and animals from simply carrying off the suet. The most common way to feed suet to birds is in pre-packaged blocks with their own suet feeder cage. Some of these may be new to you as they were to me! Suet can be fed to birds in a number of different ways. If the suet contains seeds or nuts, then seed-eating birds will also eat it. Yum!īut other birds, including wintering warblers will also eat suet. Wrens, nuthatches, chickadees, creepers, kinglets, starlings, and woodpeckers are especially attracted to suet feeders.īasically, think of suet as a big, fat, juicy, grub. Insect-eating and omnivorous birds are especially attracted to suet feeders. Other additives include bird seed, nuts or fruits. Suet that is fed to birds is any of these, often with added oats, corn meal, wheat flour, or peanut butter to keep it from melting as easily. Lard is rendered fat from pigs, often from the abdomen. Rendered fat is any fat from an animal melted down and re-hardened. True suet is the hard fat around the kidneys of cows and sheep. Finally, the placement of all feeders should be so that birds do not fly into windows.įirst, some definitions. Suet feeders should be be placed where they can be seen by birds and by human observers. Suet can be spread on a tree trunk, but is often better served in special suet cages. You should put a suet feeder on its own pole, up high, and perhaps with a squirrel baffle. To keep the suet fresh it should be shaded from the heat of the day. To attract the most birds, suet feeders should be placed carefully.

Many of these birds will be birds that cannot be attracted with bird seed. Feeding suet to birds can attract an amazing variety of birds to your backyard.

Woodpecker suet feeder