How to Make a Peanut Butter Log for Birds

While the various seeds are fine for attracting birds, it's also good to vary their diets by adding fats, especially during the cold winter months. Also, some birds, especially woodpeckers, seem often to prefer fatty foods such as peanut butter and suet over seeds. Read on to learn how to make a peanut butter log for birds.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Small log
• Drill
• Peanut butter

1. Choose a log. Find one in the woods or maybe there's a smallish one in your wood pile if you have one. Somewhere in between 2 and 4 inches in diameter should do.

2. Cut the log so that it's wieldy and not so heavy that it poses a burden to hang. You could make a small feeder that's only 8 inches long, or double that for a big one. Maybe you got lucky enough in your log find that you don't even need to alter the size.

3. Bore holes in the log. Do not use regular old drill bits, but the bigger kind (spade bits). You'll probably want the holes to be at least an inch in diameter and at least an inch deep. Use your own best judgment based on the size of the log. Also dependent upon the size of the log is how many holes you make. Just be sure there's a few inches of space between each hole, and they don't even have to be on the log in any symmetrical pattern.

4. Drill a hole toward the top and all the way through the log, so that there's an "exit wound" too. This hole serves as the cavity through which to run your string, cord, or what have you, in order to hang the log. Obviously you want the hole to be far enough from the top of the log that it will "hold," and you want it to be big enough in diameter that you can slide your cord through it. Use your best judgment, which may be better than mine, since I'm much better with birds than with carpentry.

5. String some narrow rope, cord, wire or thick twine through the hole you have just drilled toward the top of your log feeder.

6. Fill the holes with peanut butter. I don't think I need to explain this part any further. If your family does both smooth and crunchy, you might experiment to see if birds prefer one or the other.

7. Hang the log feeder from a tree branch or bracket/post.

8. Refill holes with peanut butter as needed.

Tips & Warnings

• Instead of peanut butter you could try suet or suet mixtures. Please see "Resources" at the bottom of the page.
• If your area doesn't include so many acrobatic species such as woodpeckers, chickadees, titmice, brown creepers or nuthatches, you might try drilling small holes an inch or so beneath each peanut butter hole and inserting dowels in them (as perches).
• This feeder is likely to work best in areas that are at least semi-wooded rather than grasslands or neighborhoods that look like golf courses. This is due to the fact that peanut butter tends to attract birds that are insect eaters, and insect eating birds tend to find insects in trees and bark.
• Beware of cats. Be sure to hang the feeder well off the ground if you have felines in your area.