Suet: Facts, Feeders & Recipes - Bird Nature (2024)

The picture at the right is of a Red-breasted Nuthatch at our own homemade Suet Log Feeder. If you would like to construct a log feeder, we have provided instructions for you by clicking on the above link.

Suet is raw beef fat from around the kidneys and loins. Suet is one of the best foods to attract nuthatches, woodpeckers, wrens, titmice, creepers, kinglets, chickadees, thrashers, cardinals and even bluebirds and unfortunately the starlings and squirrels! To discourage the starlings, purchase a suet feeder cage that is covered on all sides but the bottom. Only those birds that can hang upside down will use this feeder.

If the temperature outside is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and warmer, beef fat can turn rancid and melt. There are many commercial suet cakes that can be purchased and some of these are called “no melt”, “berry” and “insect” cakes.

How to Render Suet:

You can trim excess fat off beef cuts and store in the freezer until enough fat is achieved or you can purchase beef fat from the grocery store or your nearby butcher.

1. Grind the beef fat with a meat grinder or finely chop the fat.
2. Heat the fat over a low to medium flame until its liquefied.
3. Strain by pouring melted suet through a fine cheesecloth.
4. Let cool to harden.
5. Repeat steps 2-3. If the fat is not rendered twice, the suet will not cake properly.
6. Let cool to harden and store in a covered container in the freezer.

Household Items that can be used to pour suet in:

• Baker’s Tin Foil Bake Cups
• When you purchase a suet cake, reuse the container that it came in
• When suet cools, roll in balls
• Make a holding cell from heavy duty aluminum foil
• Small bread loaf pans lined with plastic wrap or foil for easy removal.
• Margarine containers
• Any size baking/pie pans (when suet cools, cut into squares)
• Pine Cones
• And, of course, our own “Nuthatch Suet Eggs”!

Nuthatch Suet Eggs!

We use the “Jell-O Egg Jigglers” mold for some fun. These molds are given away at grocery stores during the Easter Holidays. You can also use egg cartons.

1. Make suet using any one of the suet recipes listed below.
2. Cut twine or heavy string into 12″ lengths (optional). (see Note 2 below)
3. Using a paper towel dipped in vegetable oil, lightly wipe inside of both sides of the mold and along the rims.
4. Close the mold, matching up the rims of the egg halves until you hear the firm snap.
5. Insert the string in the top hole (optional) and pour the suet mixture through a funnel.
6. Refrigerate or freeze.
7. To pry open the Jell-O Egg Jigglers Mold, open the mold using a dull flat knife (butter knife) between each egg. Do not open mold by pulling the handles apart. Shake gently to unmold eggs.

Note:

1. If you don’t want to use the twine/heavy string, just pour suet in molds. Place eggs in a nylon mesh onion bag and hang anywhere in your backyard!
2. If the twine will be used, you can tie the eggs together and hang from a tree branch. The twine should not be more than 12″ in length. If you want to tie the eggs around a tree trunk, use longer lengths of twine.

Suet Feeders:

There are a variety of suet feeders that can be purchased or made. The popular commercially available suet feeder is a wire cage that holds one cake of suet. Some bird feeders have a hopper for seeds and suet cages on the sides of the hopper.

Easy-to-Make Suet Feeder:

We are providing you with instructions on how to make a very simple Suet Log Feeder. We use these every winter and have had great success. The birds that visit this feeder are: Common Flicker, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Carolina Wrens, Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatches and unfortunately the starlings! Please send us email at [emailprotected] if you have built this feeder and if it was successful.

• Attaching wire mesh to a tree trunk or suspending it from a branch.
• Hanging a nylon mesh onion bag from a tree branch.
• A log feeder.
• Simply smearing soft suet mixtures on tree trunks.
• Smeared suet on pine cones.

Suet Recipes:

Birders Delight
Feathered Friends
It Must be Love
Peanut Butter Sandwich
Captain Crunch!
Apple Dumplings
Back to Basics
Healthy Treat
Zesty Berry

Birder’s Delight

Back to Suet Recipes

Feathered Friends

• Hanging a nylon mesh onion bag from a tree branch.
• Alog feeder.
• Simply smearing soft suet mixtures on tree trunks.
• Smeared suet on pine cones.

Suet Recipes:

Birders Delight
Feathered Friends
It Must be Love
Peanut Butter Sandwich
Captain Crunch!
Apple Dumplings
Back to Basics
Healthy Treat
Zesty Berry