There are not a lot of insects flitting about in cold weather. Yet, many birds are insect feeders, needing the extra protein that bugs can provide. Serious birders can help the cause with a little suet, especially important to birds in the winter.
Genuine suet is the raw, hard fat of beef or mutton found around the kidneys or loins. The British actually use this suet to cook with (shudder) in puddings. Bird suet, however, is commonly made from certain solid fats or lard along with other ingredients – nuts, berries and the like.
A few weeks ago, I trimmed some nice fat from a beef loin and put it in a suet feeder. The birds said thanks, but no thanks. They much prefer the commercial suet, so that’s what I give them.
Suet attracts almost all of the insect eaters including Woodpeckers (downy, hairy, red-bellied, red-headed, northern flickers and pileated), goldfinches, juncos, cardinals, thrushes, jays, kinglets, bluebirds, chickadees, nuthatches, tufted titmice and wrens. When the damned grackles arrive in the spring, they make short work of a cake of suet, which is why I use a special suet feeder in a wire cage, which small birds can enter, but larger birds (and squirrels) cannot. The destructive squirrels don’t eat the fat of the suet, but if there is one tiny nut inside, they will chew on and discard the suet in order to get to that nut.
Some suets, however, attract birds more readily than others. A fellow birder, Linda Hitt, says she has the best luck with the “no-melt” suets. I agree.
Suet is a low maintenance way to attract birds. Just put in a cake every week or so and the birds will see to the rest.
One huge benefit of providing suet is that these same insect-eaters will likely stick around into spring and help keep insects out of your garden.
Put out a couple cakes of suet this winter and enjoy watching the many birds that will take advantage.