Suet – birds can be picky
Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers are the big suet eaters at our feeders. And they relish the suet I make that is in the log feeder my father made for me so many years ago. (The recipe for this suet is under Bird Feeders and Bird Baths in this website’s menu.) We also have a wire suet feeder and buy blocks of pre-made suet at our local feed and seed store. As you probably know, these blocks come with all sort of flavors and ingredients which are always listed on their labels. We have found our birds do not like all of them – even when the weather is bitterly cold. Our woodpeckers – and I would also include the Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, and White-breasted Nuthatches – all seem to like and dislike/avoid the same blocks. Have you noticed this at your bird feeders?
For those of you who were watching our livestream camera over the Christmas holiday, you know I had more decorations around the feeders. I had three gingerbread men made out of suet hanging from the front edge of the platform feeder. They were hanging down low enough that the birds did not realize they were edible, which is what I wanted. I hoped they would stay intact for a few weeks and look nice. But once mid-January came, I shortened the strings from which they were hanging so the birds could access them more easily. A Eurasian Tree Sparrow or two examined them and I think took a bite, but that was it. So I removed two and put them in the basement where I clean the feeders, and suspended one gingerbread man from the large screw that holds the chain on the log feeder. And it hangs a bit over one of the holes.
That was about two weeks ago – and there have only been a few pecks on it. The birds just push it aside to get at the suet they really like which I jam into the drilled holes. I bought those gingerbread men suets from a quite reputable seller of bird feeders and I thought they were a bit pricey, but wanted then for decoration – to spruce up the area for the winter. They came in a pack of three – I almost splurged and bought two packs. So remember, before you spend a whole lot of money on one thing to feed birds, they can be picky eaters. It could be that birds that eat suet who live in other areas relish these gingerbread men but I can tell you – and you can all observe this for yourself – not in our backyard. I will leave this gingerbread man up for the remainder of this week and into next because it is bitterly cold here, but after that, I am taking it down and throwing all three away. You will probably not see them hanging from the platform feeder next winter.
Feeding birds is trial and error. The same species of bird – in different places – can relish different things. In that, they are just like us. I like the ingredients in the gumbos that are served in Louisiana and are eaten and loved by just about everyone who lives there. But I just do not like okra. Not even a little bit. So when I travel to Louisiana, I avoid all their gumbos that everyone else is eating. And my guess is if folks born and raised in Louisiana come here to central Illinois, they may look twice and with some trepidation at our horseshoes which are on every diner menu around here. Bread, meat (generally a big hamburger patty), French fries, and lots of cheese sauce all stacked on top of each other – in that order. When I go back home to southeastern Pennsylvania, I never, ever eat scrapple and yet all my friends back there of PA Dutch ancestry have it regularly and love it. When I travel to the southwest, guacamole is served in just about every eating establishment – and from what I understand, it is truly excellent guacamole. Always fresh. Lovely flavor and texture. I like avocados, but not guacomole. Do you see the connection I am making? People are a species. Just as every other living creature is a member of a species. And every member of a species is not the same – a species can vary regionally or even from individual to individual – just like us. I share traits with every other human being on this planet, but I am also an individual. Birds are no different – it is just their differences are more subtle.
What one Mourning Dove relishes at a feeder in Delaware, another Mourning Dove in Utah might eat sparinglyly or not at all. It could be that every living creature has the capacity of being a picky eater. It is not just me!