- To make these tasty bird treats, gather your favorite birdseed, some pine cones and peanut butter. Lay out a newspaper and pour the birdseed all over it. Cover an entire pine cone with peanut butter and roll it around in the birdseed. Then, tie a string to the cone and hang it from a tree branch. The birds will clean the cone in no time.
- This is a simple mixture that you can keep stored in a zippered bag and use to refill your bird feeder as it gets low. A platform-style bird feeder works best when serving this mix. Get 2 cups of chopped dry apples, 2 cups of raisins, 2 cups of chopped nuts (any nut will do) and throw them in a bowl. Then add 1 cup of chopped prunes and 1 cup of dried melon or squash seeds. Mix all the ingredients, serve what you want, and package the rest for storage. Make sure to keep the mix in a cool, dry location to keep the apples from spoiling sooner. Serve this mix in your bird feeder or spread it on the ground of your back porch.
- With a little bit of parental guidance, kids can make a tasty bread treat to hang from the tree branches in their backyard. Start off by slowly melting 2 cups of peanut butter over low heat and add 2 cups of cornmeal. Slowly add enough warm water to turn the mix into a stiff dough and add 2 to 3 cups of birdseed, raisins and chopped peanuts. Pack the mixture into a foil pan and refrigerate it overnight. After you refrigerate the treat, you can tie a string through it so you can hang it from tree branches.
- Birds eat a lot of different types of foods, so look around your house and find something they might want. Peanut butter, molasses, oatmeal, stale bread, breadcrumbs, cornmeal, graham crackers, raisins, apples, oranges and black-oil sunflower seeds are all popular treats for wild birds. Kids should have no problem mixing some ingredients together and creating their own special recipe. Birds can eat fruit that is past its prime, but don't feed them any moldy food.
