2 cups water
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Boil water, then stir in sugar. Return to boiling, then cool, uncovered. Store in the refrigerator. WARNING: Stick to the 4 parts water to 1 part sugar proportion, as more sugar may be harmful to the birds. Use white table sugar only. Honey can encourage a lethal fungus. Artificial sweeteners have no nutrients and cause tumors.

DO NOT add red food coloring. All feeders have red on them somewhere to attract birds. Hang feeders in the shade. Wash your feeder every time you replace the syrup. A bottle brush is handy. Unused sugar water will ferment and get cloudy. It will stay fresh in an outdoor feeder about 1 1/2 weeks in the winter, but will ferment much faster in summer.

4 cups suet
1/4 cup millet
1 cup cracker or bread crumbs
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup dried fruit: raisins, currants or dates
1/4 cup peanuts or peanut butter

Melt the suet or solid fat in a large, heavy saucepan until it is liquid. Remove from heat and allow it to cool until slightly thickened.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl, then pour the cooled suet over the mixture. Stir thoroughly.

While the mixture is warm and pliable, you can spread it onto tree trunks or tree limbs for easy feeding. You can pack it into the spaces in pine cones and hang the pine cones on a tree. Or you can spread it in a 1-inch deep baking pan and refrigerate overnight. When the suet is hardened, cut it into squares to fit your feeder.

This is to be used for baby birds that fall from the nest.

1 can Ken-L Ration dog food
1 hardboiled egg, mashed
2 tablespoons Hi-Protein baby cereal

Mix well. Form into rather large pellets (the size of a raisin). Offer to birds every half hour, feeding as much as they will take each time. Mixture may be refrigerated. Offer water from medicine dropper, but very little is needed and should be given carefully to avoid aspiration into lungs causing pneumonia. It is next to impossible to overfeed.

NOTE: It is illegal in most states to cage most wild baby birds, but this food may save them until they can be released.

2 parts millet
1 part safflower seeds
1 part buckwheat, wheat-berries or sunflower seeds
2 parts whole oats

Mix ingredients in a sealable container and store, tightly sealed, in a cool, dark place. Use as the main food source, supplementing it with fresh fruits and vegetables daily.

1 pound suet, cut into small pieces
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup chunk-style peanut butter
1 cup mixed wild birdseed
1 cup sunflower seeds
Muffin pans

Melt suet over low heat. Stir in remaining ingredients to blend. Pour into paper-lined muffin pans and chill until hardened.

Northern Michigan Wildlife Rehabilitation Newsletter.

2 cups melted peanut butter, bacon
 grease, meat grease or other fat
2 cups cornmeal or stale dry cereal blended into crumbs
Warm water
2 to 3 cups wild birdseed
Raisins, nutmeats or chopped peanuts

Slowly melt peanut butter, grease or fat over low heat. Add cornmeal or stale cereal crumbs. Slowly add enough warm water to make a stiff dough, then add birdseed and raisins, nut meats or chopped peanuts. Pack mixture into small foil pans or a large flat pan and refrigerate overnight. Cut into pieces for tying onto tree branches.

1 day-old bagel
Lard
Birdseed
Jute or string (for hanging

Spread entire bagel with lard. Place birdseed on a paper plate. Roll the bagel in the birdseed. Tie jute or string through the hole of the bagel to hang the bagel. The birds can eat the whole thing!

1 1/4 pounds suet
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup crushed peanuts
1/2 cup cracked corn kernels

Melt suet in the oven or saucepan (yields about 2 cups liquid fat). Stir in peanuts, sunflower seeds and corn. Spoon into a 4-cup heart-shaped mold (or two 2-cup molds); insert a drinking straw at the top (for rope). Cool in the refrigerator until solid.

Unmold; remove straw. Thread with string and tie to a shaded tree branch.

KATHY’S EARLY BIRD BREAD RECIPE

• 2 packages of corn bread mix (not sweetened corn muffin mix!)
• frozen vegetable of choice (chopped fresh, or rinsed canned are both OK
• frozen fruit of choice (chopped fresh, or unsweetened canned are both OK)
• hulled raw unsalted sunflower seeds (available at bulk food stores near snacks)
• raisins
• hulled raw millet seed (available at bulk food stores near cereal section)
• fruit juice (orange, apple, etc.) (using more than one kind is OK)
• eggs (1 more than packages call for)

 

Preheat oven following bread mix instructions. Grease 7″ x 10″ cake pan.
Follow instructions on package for number of eggs used, then add one more egg.
Substitute fruit juices for milk required by mix.
Add approximately 1/2 cup of hulled sunflower seeds, and approximately
1/2 to 3/4 cup each of frozen veggie and frozen fruit.
Add handful of raisins.
Mix all ingredients together well.
Pour into heavily greased 9″x 13″ cake pan.
Sprinkle small handful of hulled millet seeds over top.
Bake until cake pulls away from sides of pan and is golden brown on top
(it should be hard on top, but not burned.)
Let cool completely, then cut into small (1″) cubes.
Place cubes and any crumbled pieces in a plastic bag or container, and freeze.
To use, just remove one or two cubes and thaw, then crumble up into bird’s dish.
Vitamins or wheatgrass powder can be sprinkled over the cooled, baked cake.
For one bird, this should last several weeks. Use as a treat to supplement the regular diet.
In emergencies, this can be served in place of regular food.
For Variety:

• Try using cooked beans, pasta or dry bird pellets instead of frozen vegetable.
• Or mix in 1/2 cup of applesauce (reduce other liquid by 1/4 cup).
• Mix in 1/4 cup of pellets, increase liquid by 1/4 cup to account for pellets absorbing some liquid.
• Or add 4-6 “fruity ice” cubes (see below), thawed, and 1/2 cup melted peanut butter,
  to make “PB&J” bird bread!

BEANS AND RICE

• 1/4 cup pinto beans
• 1/4 cup kidney beans
• 1/4 cup split peas
• 1/4 cup lentils
• 1/4 cup navy beans
• 1/4 cup garbanzo beans
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 cup cooked white rice
• 1 carrot (chopped)
• 1 cup frozen corn (thawed)

Soak beans overnight. Drain, rinse, refill pan with water.
Add carrots and cook with beans for 1 hour.
Add corn and rice and cook till warm. Cool and serve.
Store excess in leak proof containers.
May be frozen in 3 day serving sized containers, and thawed before use.