The coconut feeders are very popular in the garden. Besides putting regular seed in them I also fill them with the all season suet. It doesn’t take long for the birds to get the smell of the peanut butter in the suet and they start arriving to get some food.
Here is the recently made coconut feeder with one quarter of the shell cut away. I used a binder ring to fasten through the top holes that were drilled to get the coconut milk out. This ring lets me hang it on a hook or on a branch.
Then I pressed in some of the all season suet. This is a mixture of melted peanut butter, melted lard, oats, flour, corn meal and sugar. You can find the recipe on a pervious post. After filling the feeder I popped it into the fridge to solidify it more quickly. You can just leave it out and the peanut butter and lard will solidify on their own.
I think the chickadees were the first to investigate the new feeder. They flit in and out so quick I couldn’t get a really clear photo.
The little downy woodpecker was quick to find the feeder and enjoys pecking at the suet.
The starlings just love this sort of food and I’m frequently banging the window or door so they will leave and not hog it all.
You could also use my bird cake recipe for filling this feeder. I think I prefer this feeder will with suet or a bird cake as it isn’t easy to tip out. When it is filled with black oil sunflower seed, safflower seed, or regular bird seed the birds can easily empty out the food. It also moves easily in the wind and can just be blown empty. But with the suet it lasts a long time before it is empty.
