Birdseed Ornament Recipes

Homemade birdseed ornaments can easily be created in one afternoon, once you have located all of the necessary ingredients. Following a recipe, these birdseed cakes can be created to reflect any holiday season through the use of cookie cutters. Choose the appropriate birdseed and fruits to attract the birds in you area or any species you would like to entice into visiting.

  1. Simple Ornaments

    • Collect pine cones outside to make simple birdseed ornaments which can be prepared in minutes. Place approximately 1/2 cup of peanut butter, smooth or crunchy, in a shallow microwave safe dish. Microwave the peanut butter on high for about one minute. The peanut butter will melt and have a thinner consistency than normal.

      Allow the peanut butter to cool for about a minute and then carefully roll each pine cone into the peanut butter to coat the outside. Once the pine cones are covered with a sticky coating of peanut butter, roll them into shallow dishes containing bird seed, dried fruits and chopped mixed nuts. Tie a string to the pine cone and hang them outside from tree branches for the birds to enjoy.

    Birdseed-Filling Recipe

    • Prepare your own birdseed ornaments by using rendered suet to hold the birdseed together. Rendered suet is made by melting and straining fat to remove any bits of leftover meat and then allowing the fat to cool and become hard. You can save fat created during cooking to make your own suet or you can purchase cakes of rendered suet from some butcher shops.

      Melt approximately 1 1/2 cups of suet and add 1 1/2 cups peanut butter, three cups birdseed, one cup chopped dried fruit and three cups cornmeal. Mix everything together and form the mixture into balls around a piece of string or twine for hanging. Allow the ornaments to cool completely and they will become firm.

    Shaped Ornaments

    • Cookie cutters can make birdseed ornaments in nearly any shape. Look for the cookie cutters that are made of one piece of metal so that the top of the cookie cutter is open. You will be setting the cookie cutter on a piece of wax paper and packing the warm birdseed filling into the cookie cutter from above. Once the cookie cutter is firmly packed, use a chopstick or the end of a wooden spoon to make a hole near the top of the ornament. This hole will allow you to hang the ornament outside with a piece of yarn or string for the birds to enjoy. Allow the filling to cool completely before you attempt to remove it from the cookie cutter. When the ornaments have cooled, gently push them out of the cookie cutters and hang them outside.