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When doing your outdoor holiday decorating this year, please do not forget our little bird friends. While there are commercial feeders on the market, this should give you some ideas on decorating your outdoor trees with natural items that will also serve to feed our feathered friends.
Of course we all know about stringing popcorn and cranberries together to form an edible garland that the birds will love feasting on, but let’s take that a step further. While it is actually best to start feeding the outdoor birds in September when the weather starts to chill, this is when the birds start setting up certain feeding areas. Just start out with regular feeders and bird seed to attract them. When the snow starts hitting the ground and it becomes harder for the birds to find “natural” things to eat, supply them with some treats.
Save those old onion or orange bags, the mesh type bag that you get when purchase 5 pounds of onions or oranges at a time. Fill these with suet and hang them in your trees. Suet can be purchased in the meat section at your local grocery store, you may have to ask one of the butchers to get it for you, put most stores do have some. You can also make your own suet cakes for the birds by using;
3 cups melted suet
3 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup chunky peanut butter
Melt the suet in a saucepan, add the cornmeal and peanut butter. You can also add bird seed, raisins, oat meal, bits of apple, brown sugar, unsalted nuts and other unspicy treats. After you have combined your suet mixture, pour into paper lined muffin tins or cut down milk cartons. After your suet cakes are hardened just peel off the paper. Now put these into your mesh bags, and hang.
Or how about making them a Raisin Oat Cake,
1 cup raisins
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup uncooked oatmeal
½ cup lard (unsalted)
1 cup skim milk
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup flour
Combine all ingredients, and blend into a thick batter. Pour into a greased and floured pie pan. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour. Let cool and break into chunks. Place in your mesh bags and hang.
If you happen to grow your own sunflowers, trim the heads (where the seeds are located), dry slightly. These can be wired to a branch of a tree, the birds will sit on the branch and pluck out the seeds.
If you live near a field that has been growing corn, gather up some ears of corn, (best ask permission first) pull back the shucks but do not remove, tie a bunch of corn together by the shucks with a piece of string or jute. You can let these dry upside down some what before hanging in the trees.
Do you have some pine cones? These will make a great base for a bird “feeders”. Make a mixture of peanut butter and corn meal, just past the sticky stage, but not crumbly. Now add a little bird seed to this mixture and spread in on the “shelves” of the pine cone. These can then be wired to a tree branch or can be hung with a heavy string. The birds will eat all of the goodies from the pine cone, plus many will even eat the “shelves”, which are seeds from a pine tree.
If you live near an area where wheat or oats are grown, you can also gather up some of this type of grass. Hang upside down and let dry slightly. Bunches of dried grasses can be wired to tree branches, and the birds will pick out the grass seeds.
Wild birds also love fruit. Don’t stop with using cranberry strings to feed your outdoor birds. You can string together other types of berries, apples, oranges and many other fruits for the birds to enjoy.
Orange cups are a rather interesting idea. Halve an orange, now using a heavy wire, poke holes in the skin of the orange and form a hanger, you can just leave the oranges hang like this for the birds to pick out the pulp. Once they have cleaned out the pulp of the oranges, you can turn the empty skins into small feeders. Fill with any type of seeds, peanut butter or suet cakes.
Although not really a decorating for feeding tip, birds do still need water in the winter when everything is frozen. My mom happens to have a heated bird bath in her backyard. This will keep the water warm enough that it doesn’t freeze, allowing the birds to drink.
Even though these are suggestions to feed the birds, dress these ideas up a little, add brightly colored “outdoor” ribbons to the bundles of grasses, corn bundles or sunflower heads. The fruit garland will be attractive on it’s own, but other bows and ribbons can be added here and there to add to your outdoor holiday decorating, and you will be doing a good deed at the same time.
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