Activity
Feed the birds in your garden with your very own Bird Café
Feeding the birds is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to give our feathered friends a hand, especially in winter when food is harder to find.
This Helping Nature activity can be completed as part of Families Wild Challenge.
Instructions
How to make a bird food cake
Making cakes for the birds is great, sticky fun and the mix of fat, seeds and mealworms is irresistible for many garden birds.
- Carefully make a small hole in the bottom of your mould or yoghurt pot. Thread string through the hole and tie a knot on the inside. Leave enough string so that you can tie the pot to a tree.
- If you’re using lard, allow the fat to warm up to room temperature, but don’t melt it. Then cut it up into small pieces and put it in the mixing bowl.
- Add the other ingredients to the bowl and mix them together with your fingertips. Keep adding the seed/raisin/cheese mixture and squidging it until the fat holds it all together. This bit can get quite sticky.
- Fill your yoghurt pots with bird cake mixture and put them in the fridge to set for an hour or so.
- Hang your speedy bird cakes from trees. Watch for Robins, tits, Blackbirds and sparrows.
How to make loo roll feeders
These simple, upcycled feeders are great fun to create and the earlier you put them out, the sooner the birds will start to flock to your garden cafe.
- Start by making four holes in one end of your cardboard tube, these must be large enough for your sticks or skewers, but not so large that the sticks slide out. Be careful of any sharp ends!
- Make sure the holes opposite each other line up so that you can thread your sticks through.
- Next, make two small holes opposite each other in the other end of your tube. Use a butter knife or spatula to cover your roll in lard or suet, vegetarian varieties are good too.
- Roll the tube in bird seed so that the seed sticks to the lard. Finally, carefully thread the sticks through to make a cross shape, and thread a piece of string through the two top holes. Then you’re ready to hang your feeder outside.
