I often feed my backyard feathered friends suet during the winter. One day I was at Kroger’s and saw a big, fat wad of “suet” in the meat department and I bought it and hung it in the backyard.
“The birds will love this!”
Or so I thought. I noticed a few buzzards circling overhead but no actual birds landed on, much less ate any of my genuine suet.
Suet by definition is the raw, hard fat of beef or mutton found around the loins and kidneys. The English actually make pudding out of this stuff. No wonder we fought the Revolutionary War. It was either fight and declare our independence or be forced to eat pudding with mutton fat for dessert.
The suet most of us are familiar with is the commercial suet used to feed birds. For the next few months, suet will be an important part of many birds.
A cake or two dangling from a feeder will attract woodpeckers, goldfinches, juncos, cardinals, thrushes, jays, kinglets, bluebirds, chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and starlings.
Suet for birds can be made from animal fat, but not always. Because a bird’s metabolism is so high, they need extra energy, especially in the winter. The energy from fats helps them sustain themselves between meals. Also, suet today has a variety of additives, such as peanuts, berries, seeds and even insects.
I don’t however, recommend hanging a hunk of raw suet in the yard. The birds had rather have the packaged version. If you love your birds, feed them suet.