Wild Bird Food Recipes

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Using bird food recipes to make your own wild bird food is a great way to fuel your kids' interest in bird watching.

You can use a project like this to teach them about what birds eat. You can have a lot of fun when making your bird food by using seasonal molds or cookie cutters to shape your food.

Maybe you are out of bird food and your bird feeders are empty and you don't have enough time to pack up the kids and head off to the store. There are many common ingredients, which you probably have around the kitchen, that you can put together to make delicious treats for your feathered friends.

You can follow one of my recipes or just have some fun by mixing several ingredients together and see what happens.

A lot of our readers have sent in their favorites! (Scroll down below) You can find projects from simple suet bird food to how to make a birdseed wreath.

Household foods and the birds that are attracted to them

Things you can use, if you are using recipes to make homemade wild bird food:

• Raisins or Currants
• Dates
• Shelled peanuts
• Apples
• Oranges
• Birdseed mix
• Black oil sunflower seeds
• Molds to shape your creations
• String or yarn
• Lard, shortening or rendered suet
• Crunchy peanut butter
• Molasses
• Oatmeal
• Stale bread, breadcrumbs or crackers
• Cornmeal or cornbread mix
• Cream of wheat
• Graham crackers
• Flour (whole wheat flour preferred)

Two bird food recipes to start with:

If you are going to use an oriole feeder, consider making your own homemade Oriole bird food.

Homemade Oriole Bird Food Recipe

1 part sugar/6 parts water

Bring the water to a boil and then add the sugar. Boil until the sugar has dissolved. 1 part sugar to 6 parts water means that if you boil 2 cups of water you will need 1/3 cup of sugar.

Let the mixture cool before filling your feeder. Store any excess food in your refrigerator until ready to use. There is no need to add food coloring.

Learn more about attracting orioles here.

September Harvest

This is another homemade wild bird food recipe that I know you will enjoy. September means apples. There are also many other fruits available. Many migratory birds that eat fruit will be tempted to linger at your bird feeders if you offer the following mix. Use a platform style feeder when offering this wild bird food mix.

• 2 cups of dried, chopped apples (dried apples will not get moldy as fast)
• 2 cups of raisins
• 2 cups of chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts or any nuts you have available)
• 1 cup of chopped prunes
• 1 cup of dried melon or squash seeds

Simply mix the ingredients together in a large bowl or bucket. Start by adding small amounts to your feeder and store the rest in a paper bag in a cool and dry location. Now your homemade wild bird food is ready to serve.

Our Readers Wild Bird Food Recipes

Just scroll down and you can view several of our readers' recipes for wild bird food recipes.

Do you have one you'd like to share? What kind of birds does your recipe attract? Got a picture of them feeding in your feeder? It's simple to upload a photo!

We'd love to feature it for our readers. Just fill out the form below!

Leftover Baked Oatmeal Scramble

by Mendy(Kentucky)

Yummy Baked Oatmeal for People:

• 1/2 Stick butter, melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 5 cups oatmeal
• 3 cups water or milk
• Mix well. Bake 325 for 20 minutes.

For the birds:

Use leftover oatmeal and scramble in skillet with:

• chopped apple or other dried fruit
• Leftover chopped bacon.
• Refrigerate. Sprinkle on platform feeder.

Breakfast of Champions

by Chery Aschenbrenner (Laona, WI 54541)

left over bacon grease cooled when cool add chunky peanut butter/stir. Add raisins, sunflower seeds, special K cereal. Let sit then freeze in square container suet feeder size.

An idea bird combo-mix

by kevin swenson(columbus,ohio)

A combination of oats, cut prunes, raisins, honey, peanut butter, syrup(optional), granola, and a mix of crushed nuts.

Leftover Baked Oatmeal Scramble

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup meat grease
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

Mix dry ingredients. Melt grease and peanut butter in microwave. Add to dry ingredients. Mix well. Freeze in ice cubes trays until firm.

Peanut Butter Pine Cone

• Attach a string to a pine cone (tie it on)
• spread peanut butter over the pine cone
• then roll the peanut butter covered pine cone in bird seed.

Hang in a tree and watch the birds come for a meal!

Log Feeder Bird Treat

When using a log feeder, why not try this neat treat that birds love, consisting of:

• 5 parts oatmeal
• 1 part corn syrup
• 1 part peanut butter
• 1 part bacon fat of suet
• 1 part varied seeds and nuts i.e. black sunflower seeds, peanuts, chopped walnuts, or pine seeds and millet will work as well.

Combine in a bowl and once your done fill the mixture into your log feeder. 

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