How to Make Bird Snacks

These Bird Cake Bird Snacks are sure to make your feathered friends happy.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Begin with two cups of bread crumbs (use mom's old, dry bread crusts -- the birds won't mind, and mom will like the fact that they don't go to waste).

Step 2: Mix in a handful of unsalted nuts, two handfuls of raisins, one cup of sugar, a half-cup of corn meal, a half-cup of flour, and one cup of bird seed.

Step 3: Add eight ounces of peanut butter and some bacon drippings to hold the mix together.

Step 4: Shape the bird snack into "donuts" and freeze. Once they're frozen, carefully hang the bird cakes from your favorite trees and watch the birds chow down.

Keep reading to learn how to make more bird snacks.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

Birds can always use a helping hand to find food during the winter months. Help them out by creating this food for flyers bird snacks project.

What You'll Need:

Whether you're setting up a backyard wildlife refuge or just want to attract a few birds, you'll enjoy having and maintaining bird feeders in your yard. To make a window feeder, cut a piece of scrap wood (with adult help) as wide as a window. Paint it, then use metal brackets to mount it underneath a window. You can offer seeds, fruit, or cut-up suet on a table. You can also set out a shallow dish of water for the birds to drink.Straight peanut butter is too sticky for birds, but you can mix it with equal parts lard or shortening, then stir in corn meal and sunflower seeds until the mixture is stiff. Stuff the mix into pine cones and hang them up, or spoon into yogurt cups and hang the cups in trees.To make a fruit feeder, tie long strings to the corners of a half-pint plastic berry basket. Tie the strings together and hang the basket from a tree branch. Put a few cut cherries, grapes, or other diced, brightly-colored fruit in the basket. Offer a small amount of fruit at a time and replace the fruit daily. Offer this in the summer when fruit-eating birds are active.On the next page you'll learn how to make a great bird snack for the holidays.For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

These Garlands Galore Bird Snacks are decorative, and birds love them.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Tear stale bread slices into fourths.

Step 2: Then slice the oranges into rounds, and cut the rounds into fourths.

Step 3: Thread the needle with the yarn, and string the bread and the oranges onto the yarn -- space them out along the yarn.

Step 4: Decorate an outdoor tree or bush with your garlands.

Continue reading for more bird snacks.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

Keep your favorite feathered friends from going hungry with these Seed and Feed Bird Snacks.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Go to your local pet or garden center and buy a bag of bird seed made just for the birds in your yard.

Step 2: Fill stiff paper plates or recycled pie pans with the seed.

Step 3: String them to lower branches of the trees to help make sure each tweeter gets enough to eat.

Birds will flock around the bird snack you'll learn about next.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

All types of birds will love these tasty Suet Bell Bird Snacks.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Gather birdseed, bread crumbs, and dried fruit. These ingredients are the "filler" for this project. Step 2: Collect some suet, lard, or drippings from a roast or bacon. (You'll need about 1/2 pound of suet for every pound of filler.) Step 3: Ask an adult to melt the suet in a saucepan and mix in the filler. Let the mixture cool a little.

Step 4: Poke a small hole in the bottom of a yogurt container. Tie a knot in a length of string and pull the string about halfway through the hole. Make sure there are several inches of string inside the container and several inches outside.

Step 5: Have an adult pour the suet and filler mixture into the yogurt container. Leave it overnight to harden.

Step 6: Carefully remove the yogurt container. Use the string to hang the suet bell in a tree where birds gather.

Use pine cones to make the bird snacks you'll learn about next.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

A pine cone makes a natural "snack shop" for birds. Here's how to make Pine Cone Café Bird Snacks.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Tie a string from the top of a pine cone.

Step 2: Smear lots of peanut butter all over the cone.

Step 3: Roll the cone in birdseed so the seeds stick in the peanut butter. It may not make your mouth water, but to birds, it's a treat.

Step 4: Hang the pine cone from a branch, and birds will begin stopping by for a snack.

Birds deserve a good holiday, too. Continue to the next page to learn how a snack can make a great holiday gift for birds.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

Decorate a neighborhood tree with these wonderful Holiday Tree Bird Snacks.

What You'll Need:

Step 1: Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of bread.

Step 2: Poke a piece of yarn through each shape.

Step 3: Spread peanut butter on the shapes, and press seeds into the peanut butter.

Step 4: Hang the shapes from an outdoor tree with the yarn, and watch the birds flock around.

The bird snacks craft on the following page is a great way to help out your neighborhood birds when food is scarce in the winter months.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

When the weather gets cold, these Winter Bird Snacks give our feathered friends a much needed treat.

What You'll Need:

To make suet cakes: Step 1: Put two pounds of ground suet in a large pan and add two quarts of water. Simmer until all the fat is melted. Step 2: Strain into a bowl and let it cool, then put in the refrigerator until the fat is hard. Step 3: Remove the hardened fat and put into a small pan. Melt it over low heat. Add three or four cups of birdseed. Step 4: Make molds by shaping two layers of aluminum foil over the outside of a plastic food container. Step 5: Pour the suet-birdseed mix into the molds. (Two pounds of suet will make three four-inch by six-inch cakes.) You can put the cakes on a platform feeder out of reach of squirrels or hang them in a mesh onion sack.To make bird treats:

To make suet cakes: Step 1: Put two pounds of ground suet in a large pan and add two quarts of water. Simmer until all the fat is melted. Step 2: Strain into a bowl and let it cool, then put in the refrigerator until the fat is hard. Step 3: Remove the hardened fat and put into a small pan. Melt it over low heat. Add three or four cups of birdseed. Step 4: Make molds by shaping two layers of aluminum foil over the outside of a plastic food container. Step 5: Pour the suet-birdseed mix into the molds. (Two pounds of suet will make three four-inch by six-inch cakes.) You can put the cakes on a platform feeder out of reach of squirrels or hang them in a mesh onion sack.To make bird treats:

Step 1: Mix two parts of peanut butter with one part each of shortening, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, and birdseed.

Step 2: Mix in a large bowl.

Step 3: Roll the mixture into balls and put in a feeder.

Keep reading for more easy-to-make bird snacks.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

When it gets cold, life is rough for birds. Next time it snows, make these Snowman Bird Snacks to help them out.

What You'll Need:

In winter, when many of the things that birds like to eat are covered with snow, the birds could use your help. Make a snowman (or snow person) and decorate it with things birds like to eat. That includes birdseed and fruit. Your snow creation is likely to have lots of feathered friends.

You can make several snow people -- or even a whole snow family! Use different kinds of food and see if you attract a variety of birds. You may also attract squirrels, rabbits, and other types of backyard wildlife.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

About the Craft Designers

Bird Cake Bird Snacks by Maria Birmingham, Karen E. Bledsoe, Kelly Milner Halls

Food for Flyers Bird Snacks by Maria Birmingham, Karen E. Bledsoe, Kelly Milner Halls

Seed and Feed Bird Snacks by Maria Birmingham, Karen E. Bledsoe, Kelly Milner Halls