Feed the birds in winter with 3 easy-to-make homemade recipes

In winter, a time of year when birds struggle to find their own food, making seed loaves or fat balls to allow them to feed easily is an activity that is as fun as it is useful. Here are 3 easy-to-make homemade recipes, ideal to make with children and requiring only a few steps. Enough to feed the birds in winter while raising awareness among young people about wildlife protection.

Why make bird food in winter?

Winter is a critical season for wild birds. Climatic conditions limit their access to food, so it is not so much the cold as hunger that threatens them. In addition, it is during this period that birds need more food to allow their metabolism to withstand the drop in temperatures. Unfortunately, snow, frost and ice prevent birds from reaching this precious food. This is why installing feeders but also waterers allowing them to eat and stay hydrated all winter is the best way to help them. Help to stop as soon as the sunny days returnexcept for the waterer, which the birds may still need during the high summer heat.

If you should definitely not give them breada dangerous practice for the health of the birds in our gardens, it is possible to find suitable seed packets on the market. You can also make your own food for the birds in your garden. Below are 3 recipes that are as simple as they are nourishing.

Also read – Feeding birds: be careful of these foods that are often given and yet toxic

3 homemade recipes to feed wild birds in winter

1 – A garland of peanuts to hang in the garden

Peanutsparticularly prized by tits, are also the delight of robins and goldfinches. Excellent for their health, when they are of course not yet salted, unshelled peanuts also allow you to observe the birds in the garden for many minutes. Here’s how make a peanut garland to hang to feed the birds.

Ingredients :

• A piece of string
• A needle
• Peanuts in the shell

The steps:

Nothing could be simpler: pierce the middle of the shells of several peanuts with the needle, to pass a piece of string which you will take care to tie between each peanut, to hold them securely on the thread. Then tie a knot at one end of the wire, in order to easily hang it from the branch of a tree for example.

2 – Bird cakes with apples, raisins and oats

Another good idea for feed the birds in winter : make apple, oat and raisin cakes.

Ingredients :

• 3 cups chopped apples
• 1 cup of raisins
• 2 cups peanut butter
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

The steps:

Mix the grapes, apple and oatmeal in a salad bowl. Add the peanut butter and brown sugar, mix for a few minutes, then pour everything into small molds. Place them in the refrigerator to allow the cakes to harden, before feeding them to the birds!

Cakes that you can place in the feeders or hang in their center from a tree branch, if your molds allow it.

3 – Make bird seed breads

And fats high in cholesterol are not recommended for birdsvegetable fats are beneficial.

Ingredients :

• Unsalted margarine
• Sunflower seeds, unsalted peanuts, wheat, oats, millet, buckwheat…
• Yogurt jars
• Raffia or twine
• matches

The steps:

In a container, mix the slightly warmed margarine with the birdseed of your choice.

Cut pieces of string approximately 25 cm long, then at one end, attach 3 matches in the center, spacing them 1 cm apart. These matches will be used to hold the ball of grease in place on the string.

Place a string in each empty yogurt pot, so that the matches are in the pot. Leave the other end of the string sticking out. Pour the mixture of margarine and seeds into the pots, making sure to keep the string in the center, pack everything down well.

Place the jars in the refrigerator for a few hours to harden the mixture. To unmold the fat balls, all you have to do is let lukewarm water run over the surface of the yogurt pots.

Trick : this same mixture can be placed in a small cup with a handle, in which to plant a stick which will serve as a perch for the birds! Then, once the mixture has hardened in the refrigerator, you just need to tie a ribbon to the handle so that you can hang the cup from a branch or right up against a tree, so that it is more stable.

Another idea for arranging homemade fat balls: pour the mixture into half an orange peel, hanging using matches and a string.

Where to place bird food in the garden?

Now that you have made bird food, it should not be placed just anywhere in the garden. To find the ideal location, you have to put yourself in the place of the birds who will come to feed. It is therefore better to avoid places that are difficult to access, which cannot be seen very well from a distance. Also avoid placing bird food where the birds themselves would constitute ideal prey for possible predators, such as cats… From where they are, birds must be able to feed while having a clear view of their immediate environment.

Also pay attention to windows and other transparent walls, which mislead birds and on which they can die by colliding against their surface. This is why the tip of a branch can serve as an ideal location, when it is far enough from the windows and high enough that a cat cannot reach it in a single bound.

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