Making Fat Food for Birds Yourself

Especially when it's cold and icy outside, but also during the breeding season, garden birds rely on additional reserves and reliable food sources. Fat food is a perfect supplement for them during this time. It’s quite easy to make at home, and even the smallest bird lovers can help. If the bird feeder is well-frequented, it's definitely worth the effort.

• Lard or coconut fat and a splash of salad oil
• Cereal flakes
• Raisins or other dried fruit
• Sunflower seeds (preferably with shells)
• Other energy-rich, oil-containing seeds like poppy or hemp
• Chopped nuts
• Possibly animal ingredients like mealworms

Alternatively, ready-made seed mixtures can be used instead of the individual dry ingredients. They contain a balanced composition.

Almost anything you have at home can be used as a container: from kitchen or toilet paper rolls to flower pots, yogurt cups, coconut shells, pieces of tree bark, cookie cutters, and much more. To provide the wild birds with a place to perch while enjoying the homemade fat food, you'll also need a few branches. If you want the whole thing to look especially decorative, it’s a good idea to use pretty gift ribbons or bows for hanging. Alternatively, you can also use parcel string or strong twine.

When choosing the fat, it's important to consider which bird species you want to feed. Some species prefer animal fats over plant-based fats. Tits especially enjoy fat food, but so do woodpeckers and nuthatches. They don't turn their noses up at mealworms either. Nuthatches and woodpeckers like to peck their food from tree bark. If you don't have a suitable tree in your garden or don’t want to smear the tree, you can also attach fat food to larger, fallen bark pieces from the forest for these beautiful birds.

Heat the fat in a saucepan on low heat. Once it’s liquid, remove the pot from the stove and let it cool slightly. To prevent the mixture from becoming too hard and brittle in the cold, you can stir in a splash of salad oil. Next, add the cereal flakes, grains, fruit pieces, and seeds. Stir in enough dry ingredients to make the mixture clumpy. Insert the branches into the container so that they protrude at least ten centimeters below. It’s best to attach the twine directly to the branches beforehand. The hanging string should then stick out above the container. Fill the fat food mixture into the container, and let it cool. If you used paper rolls as containers, carefully remove them once the mixture has cooled. The homemade feeder can now be hung in the garden at an elevated position (to protect it from cats). However, it’s important to note that some soft-food eaters, like thrushes, blackbirds, yellowhammers, brambling, hedge sparrows, and robins, prefer to feed from the ground—though they generally prefer scattered food.

Half coconut shells look very attractive. Drill a hole at the top and bottom of the shells and thread a coconut rope through them. When the rope sticks out sufficiently at both ends, a wooden perch for the birds is not necessarily needed. It also looks very nice to fill slightly larger cookie cutters with fat food. For this, tie a decorative fabric ribbon to the cutter and place the form on baking or aluminum foil. Then, fill the still-warm fat food mixture into the cutter and smooth it out. Instead of coconut shells or cookie cutters, terracotta flower pots also look great. For these, a coconut rope or wide fabric ribbon works well for hanging, and a wooden stick or branch makes a great perch for the little birds.

In general, there are virtually no limits to creative ideas here!