Make Your Own Bird Food: Suet & Seed Mixes
Do you love bird watching? Our homemade bird food recipes can be made any time of the year, especially in the colder months when natural resources are scarce. These popular bird feed recipes appeal to songbirds, backyard birds, and more. Also, see how to make a simple DIY pine cone feeder!
Watching and studying our feathered friends is a great joy for many of us. In the winter, experts maintain that the best way to bird-watch is in a comfortable chair by the window (and we would agree). Keeping a feeder stocked with bird food can attract birds that stay with you until spring.
Is it Good to Feed the Birds in Winter?
Rest assured that it’s fine to feed birds during the cold winter months. Supplemental food helps birds during especially tough winters—and this will not affect bird migration. Several factors trigger the urge for birds to migrate, but the most significant is day length. When the days get shorter, certain birds move on, regardless of whether there are filled feeders still available to them.
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During the rest of the year, it’s best to take feeders inside, as there will be plenty of other natural resources for the birds. Bird feeders can be very attractive to foraging mammals, such as skunks, rats, and bears, who are usually unwelcome visitors!
When Should I Put Out Bird Feeders?
It varies by region, but typically it’s not recommended to put out bird feeders until at least December. This ensures that hungry hibernators such as bears are already bedded down for the winter and that the birds have something to snack on when foraging becomes difficult.
For homemade suet, which can go rancid if exposed to too-warm temperatures, it’s best to wait until temperatures are consistently in the 40s (°F) or below.
Simple DIY Pine Cone Feeder
If you have kids, making a pine cone feeder can be fun! You will need four items: pine cones, string, peanut butter, and birdseed.
- Find some pinecones. (Ponderosas are nice because of their larger size, but most types will do.)
- Wrap the string in a tight loop around the top of the pine cone, leaving enough to tie it to a tree or pole.
- Coat the outside of the pinecone with peanut butter, and then roll it in birdseed. Using smaller seeds will ensure that seeds stick well, but mixed seed or black-oil sunflower seed will work as long as you press the seed in well.
- Hang your feeder on a tree branch or pole and watch the birds enjoy their winter feast!
Homemade Bird Food Recipes
Most people put out a birdseed mix, which birds do appreciate. However, if you really want to impress your avian friends, here are a few DIY bird food recipes we recommend:
- Suet
A simple suet recipe that is beloved by woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, and many other backyard birds.
- Jack Dudley’s Woodpecker Pudding
A suet–peanut butter concoction that will drive all the wild birds, well, wild!
- Junco Cornbread
This simple baked cornbread is quite literally for the birds—and boy, do they enjoy it.
- Homemade Hummingbird Food
Come spring, don’t forget the hummers! This simple recipe for hummingbird nectar consists of only sugar and water.
Bird-Feeding Advice
What’s most important is that you keep birds safe by keeping your bird feeders clean. Scrub out feeders with a 10 percent non-chlorinated bleach solution at least a few times a year and certainly between seasons. Remove suet in hot weather because it will spoil quickly.
See our Wild Bird Food chart for more information on what kinds of foods different types of birds eat. Also, choose a bird feeder that fits the bird species you wish to attract!
Here’s some advice for growing plants with seeds to feed the birds and plants that attract hummingbirds.
Do you feed the birds in your backyard? Who’s your favorite winged visitor? Tell us about them in the comments below!
Catherine Boeckmann
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"With the temperatures rising, I’ve noticed my birds are eating more, and I’m running out of bird feed much faster. Is there something I can make that’s safe for them to eat in 100+ degree weather, won’t spoil, and won’t make them sick?
Not knowing what part of the country you are in or what type of birds you are feeding, it is difficult to be precise. It can get expensive, for sure, but when it comes to appeal, benefit, and weather-toughness, there isn’t much of anything that outperforms seeds.
Here are some tips from the National Wildlife Foundation and the Audubon Society:
https://blog.nwf.org/2024/01/year-round-bird-feeding/
https://www.audubon.org/news/how-help-birds-beat-heat
Can I just roll the suite in round balls and smash them, and put them in the suite cage.
That certainly is one way to do it, Cheryl!
With the temperatures rising I've noticed that my birds are eating a lot more and I'm running out of bird feed a lot faster... Is there anything that I can make that is safe for them to eat in 100 plus degree weather that won't make them sick and won't go bad??
Hi, Hannah. It’s difficult to know what to give the birds when the weather gets so hot and things melt and go rancid so quickly. We would suggest supplementing your bird seed mix with crushed peanuts (do not leave them whole). You can just mix it in with the seed you are already using.
As thoughtful as it is to make suet, pine cones or any object they land on must be free of fats. If u use a pine cone stick a dowel through it for them to perch. If not the oils will cause hypothermia.
Old corn cobs work well in place of pine cones, lather them with chunky peanut butter and pour bird seed on them; you can run an eye screw into one end to make an easy hanger. It will keep a squirrel busy for a while and out of your bird feeder.
I am looking for a homemade recipe to make orange suet
We have been feeding the birds in our little apartment backyard in Central Valley, CA for 10 years now. I can't quite figure out the suet better so they'll eat it. Our regulars our squeaky, bossy blue jays, dark eyed juncos, double crested sparrows, and the ubiquitous mourning dove. We have definitely seen a reduction in their populations and variety, so sad. Happy birding, all!
