fruit bird feeders

A Fruit Feeder provides food in your backyard habitat which appeals to those birds who eat primarily or only fruits and berries. Some birds will not visit your bird feeder for seeds at all, but will stop by to enjoy an apple or orange. Fruit eating birds such as robins, waxwings, bluebirds, and mockingbirds rarely will eat birdseed, but you may be able to attract them to stay and nest in your backyard by including a food source designed just for them.

There are specially designed fruit feeders which will hold chunks of fruit such as halved apples, pears or oranges, or you may use a platform feeder to include smaller bits like raisins, currents, cherries, blueberries or pieces of cut up fruit.

One of our favorite fruits to leave out for the birds is raisins and currants soaked in water overnight. Place them on a table feeder or Hanging Platform Feeder and see what shows up. You may also blends with a dried fruit mixture. Another option is to use a dehydrator to make your own dried fruit mixes which is particularly effective in the summer months when the weather is too hot to leave fresh fruit out at your feeding stations because it may spoil too quickly.

Oranges are another effective fruit to attract songbirds with. To attract orioles and tanagers, skewer halved oranges on a spike near your other feeders or provide nectar feeders. Feeders made specifically for this purpose are handy because they allow fruit eating birds a separate area to feed from which is away from activity of seed eating birds.

Birds will also eat vegetables like tomatoes, green peppers, squash and green beans.

Melon rinds or scraped insides of cantaloupe or honeydew is also a treat. Be sure to put out the seeds!

Recipe: Bird Tasties
4 C. suet
1/4 C. millet
1 C. cracker or bread crumbs
1/2 C. sunflower seeds
1/4 C. dried fruit: raisins,
Chopped currants or dates
1/4 C. peanuts or peanut butter

Melt the suet or solid fat in a large, heavy saucepan until it is liquified. Take away from heat and allow it to cool until somewhat thickened. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl, then pour the cooled down suet over the mixture. Stir thoroughly. While the mixture is warm and flexible, you can spread it on feeder sources for easy feeding. Another option is to spread it in a 1 inch deep baking pan and refrigerate overnight. When the suet is hardened, cut it into squaressized to fit feeder.

Beef Suet Recipe
1½ cups beef suet
1½ cups smooth or crunchy peanut butter
3 cups quick cooking oatmeal
3 cups cornmeal
1½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup sugar
In a large saucepan over medium low heat or a microwave, melt beef fat and peanut butter, stirring frequently.
Stir in remaining ingredients. (If mixture is too dry add more melted beef fat.)
To make suet cakes out of the mixture, you may roll it into balls or form cakes like you would a hamburger patty. These can be wrapped in cellophane and stored in your freezer. Another option is to pour the mixture inti flat pans to form cakes.

Recipe: Gourmet Bird Food Balls
2 lb. ground suet
2 C. peanut butter
1/3 C. molasses
1/4 C. bacon grease
1 lb. regular oatmeal
1 C. cornmeal
Sunflower seeds

Recipe: Wild Bird Suet Muffins
2 C. warm rendered suet
1 C. dry bread crumbs
1 can dog food or 1 C. peanut butter
2 C. raisins
2 C. rolled oats

Render two pounds of raw suet by chopping in a meat grinder. Place in pot with 1/2 inch of water, cover with lid and place in a 350°F oven. Stir now and again. Tilt ld open after fat begins to run. Count on two to three hours of slow cooking time; strain liquid fat.

Bird Treats Recipe
1 1/4 lb. suet
1/2 C. sunflower seeds
1/2 C. crushed peanuts
1/2 C. cracked corn kernels

Melt suet slowly in the oven or sauce pan to yields about 2 cups liquid fat. Stir in peanuts, sunflower seeds and corn. Spoon into molds of choice, cool in the refrigerator until solid. Remove from mold when cooled and solid, place in feeder and hang outdoors!

Bird Crumble Recipe
2 C. melted peanut butter, bacon grease, meat grease or other fat
2 C. cornmeal, or stale dry cereal
blended into crumbs
Warm water
2 to 3 C. wild birdseed
Raisins, nutmeats or chopped peanuts

combine peanut butter and fat, slowly melt over low heat. Add cornmeal or cereal crumbs. Slowly add enough warm water to make a stiff dough, then add birdseed and raisins, nut meats or chopped peanuts. Pack mixture into small foil pans or a large flat pan and refrigerate overnight. Cut into pieces to form cakes or crumbles.

Peanutbutter Suet Recipe:

1 Cup Chunky Peanut Butter
2 Cups Cornmeal
2 Cups Quick Cook Oats
1 Cup Lard or Crisco
1/3 Cup Sugar

Peanut Butter Suet Recipe:

1 Cup White Flour
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup lard or Crisco
2 cups quick cook oats
2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
Melt the peanut butter and lard and add remaining ingredients and cool.

Corn Suet Recipe:

2 cup fresh ground suet
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups yellow corn meal
2 cups fine cracked corn
Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat. Allow it to cool thoroughly; then reheat it. Add peanut butter, stirring until melted and well blended. Add dry ingredients to the suet peanut butter blend, mixing well. Pour into forms or suet-feeders, and cool until hardened.

Seed & Nut Suet Recipe:

2 pounds fresh ground suet
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup coarse-chopped shelled sunflower seeds
Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat. Add peanut butter, stirring until melted and well blended. Stir in the sunflower seeds, mixing thoroughly. Pour into cake pan and allow to cool Cut into cakes that fit suet feeder You can then individually wrap the remaining cakes and store in freezer for future use.

Seed & Nut Suet Recipe:

1 cup fresh ground suet

Homemade Suet Recipe:
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups yellow corn meal
1/2 cup white or whole-wheat flour
Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat.
Add peanut butter, stirring until melted and well blended. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Allow the suet-peanut-butter blend to cool until slightly thickened, then stir it into the mixture in the bowl. Mix thoroughly. Pour or pack into forms or suet feeders, smear onto tree trunks or overhanging limbs and branches or pack into pine cones.

If you have a favorite suet recipe, please share it! Thank you!!

Which species of backyard birds eat fruits & berries. Try these in your feeders for something different!

• Apples, baked - bluebirds, American robins.
• Apples – One of our favorite foods for fruit and berry eating birds. It’s easy and effective. Over 45 species of birds will eat apples. Yellow breasted chat, common flickers, house finch, blue jay, mockingbirds, orioles, American robin, sparrow white crowned, thrasher curve billed, thrush hermit, orange crowned warbler orange crowned, waxwing cedar, hairy woodpecker, cactus wren.
• Blueberries - Over 80 species of birds eat blueberries including American robins, black-capped chickadees, common flickers, grackles, house sparrows, kingbird, many species of orioles, towhees, and tufted titmice.
• Bananas - indigo bunting, chat yellow breasted, house finch, gray jay, mockingbirds, starlings, tanager western, warbler Tennessee, hairy woodpecker, Carolina wren.
• Cantaloupe seeds – nuthatch white breasted, nuthatch red breasted, house sparrow.
• Cherries - American robins, blackbirds, black headed grosbeaks, bluebirds, blue jays, gray catbirds, cedar waxwings, common flickers, downy woodpeckers, grackles, hairy woodpeckers, hermit thrushes, house finches, house sparrows, Lewis woodpeckers, northern cardinals, northern mockingbirds, northern orioles, pine grosbeaks, red headed woodpeckers, rose-breasted grosbeaks, ruffed grouse, song sparrows, stellar jays, Townsend’s solitares, western tanagers, other tanagers, white crowned sparrows, white throated sparrows, wood thrushes.
• Crabapples frozen - Purple, American robin, cedar waxwing.
• Grapes – Over 90 species of birds eat grapes. American robin, bluebirds, blue jay, cedar waxwing, gray catbird, house finch, evening grosbeaks, grosbeak black headed, grosbeak rose breasted, gray jay, mockingbird, magpies, northern cardinals, hooded oriole, oriole northern Baltimore, scott’s oriole, stellar jays, western tanager, Carolina thrasher, brown thrasher, Swainson’s thrush, towhees, warblers, acorn woodpeckers and yellow-billed cuckoos.
• Oranges – catbird gray, doves, mockingbirds, oriole northern Baltimore, tanager scarlet, tanager summer, tanager western, thrasher brown, warbler yellow rumped myrtle, woodpecker red bellied.
• Plums - American robins, blackbirds, black headed grosbeaks, bluebirds, blue jays, gray catbirds, cedar waxwings, common flickers, downy woodpeckers, grackles, hairy woodpeckers, hermit thrushes, house finches, house sparrows, Lewis woodpeckers, northern cardinals, northern mockingbirds, northern orioles, pine grosbeaks, red headed woodpeckers, rose-breasted grosbeaks, ruffed grouse, song sparrows, stellar jays, Townsend’s solitares, western tanagers, other tanagers, white crowned sparrows, white throated sparrows, wood thrushes.
• Pumpkin seeds – chickadee, junco dark eyed, nuthatch white breasted, sparrow American tree, warbler yellow rumped.
• Raspberries & Blackberries - Over 140 species of birds eat them including American robins, blue jays, common flickers, fox sparrows, grackles, house sparrows, orchard orioles, red headed woodpeckers, tufted titmice, wood thrush, northern cardinals, northern mockingbirds, northern orioles, rose-breasted grosbeak, song sparrows and white throated sparrows.
• Strawberries – bluebirds, gray catbird, cedar waxwings, common flickers, grosbeak black headed, grosbeak rose breasted, jay blue, magpies, mockingbirds, robin American, Quail bobwhite, towhees, wood thrush.
• Watermelon rind – purple finch, grosbeaks, mockingbird, oriole hooded, warblers.

Please share with us if your backyard birds eat fruits and let us know what species and area.  Thank you!

This is a simple recipe for making your own hummingbird nectar.

1 Part sugar
4 Parts water
Boil well for a few minutes
Cool & store in refrigerator

Never use honey or artificial sweeteners. Honey ferments rapidly and can make hummers ill.

There is no study to show if red dye is harmful to hummingbirds but we do not use red food coloring in our solution. It has not been proven that it is harmful, but it has also not been shown that it is not.  This is a personal choice and we do it because the effects of dye on hummingbirds is unknown at this time. If there is a chance, why take it? The red parts of a feeder will attract hummingbirds quite effectively on their own. Tying ribbons over the feeder is also a method of attracting hummers to feeders, therefore the dye is moot.