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  • Writer's pictureOutdoorsy Anna

Bird Baking!!

Updated: Feb 15, 2021


It's Friday night, the end of a long half-term of school work for me. Everyone else seems to be having a pizza, watching a movie but I know the perfect thing- baking for the birds!

I'd recently received an RSPB wall chart, and on the back of it there was a basic recipe for suet fat balls which read 250g melted lard, and 500g plain flour. I however, wanted to make sure my suet balls packed an extra nutritious something for the birds- so I decided on mixing in everyday mixed bird seed.

I had planned on making these a lot earlier but unfortunately the lard was sold out the last couple of times we have been to Tesco's on our greatly reduced Covid-19 shopping schedule, but hurray- they had lard!

I know that instead of lard you can use vegetable shortening, but you can also substitute for coconut oil and add some tablespoons of peanut butter if you like- there's quite a choice. However, all's well (within obvious reason) as long as you stay away from:

  • Desiccated coconut can be fatal to birds if not well soaked

  • Salty items, such as salted peanuts, crisps and bacon

  • Any large chunks/dry food like stale bread that may swell when ingested

It felt so nice to know that in the morning the birds would have homemade suet instead of their usual birdseed, and it was such a quick easy process and I would encourage you to make your own when you have a spare 5 mins to make the mixture and a spare 30 mins to roll out the suet into balls or chunks, or around 20 mins if you are on a roll.

I know I'm also going to deposit these around my local park as well as in my bird feeder, just to give them little welcome surprise by wedging them in the nooks and crannies of trees where I know where they are so I can inspect them and remove them if mouldy. Suet should be watched carefully to ensure that it doesn't go mouldy, and needs to be removed straight away as if not, even though some molds are harmless, some can cause respiratory infections in garden birds and if not removed can be breeding ground for salmonella bacteria, which is fatal.



What you need:

-A mixing bowl

-A pan

-A spoon

-350g plain flour

-500g mixed bird seed

-250g lard





  1. Melt the 250g lard on a low heat in a pan until completely melted.

  2. Meanwhile, in the mixing bowl, measure out 350g plain flour and mix in the 500g mixed bird seed. The bird seed can be whatever type you like.

  3. Then once completely melted, pour the melted lard over the top of the flour seed mixture.

  4. Get mixing. Using a spoon make sure the lard coats all the dry mixture



5. Keep mixing and it will begin to thicken as the lard begins to cool.

6. However, you can add more bird seed and more plain flour in to reach your desired consistency- more if you'd like it crumbly. There's really no way to go wrong because if it turns out you added a little too much flour and it's too crumbly to form balls, you can just add some water to loosen up the mixture.



7. Once the mixture is a thick consistency (like if you grab a big spoonful, turn it upside own and it falls off in clumps or doesn't fall off at all), you can start shaping.

8. I used tracing paper baking cases and dusted the bottoms with some flour to prevent any sticking.

9. Shape them into balls, pellets or oddly shaped blocks like I did!

10. Then, I left them out to set and popped them in a cool dry place- I put mine in the shed but you can put them in the fridge.

11. Your suet fat balls/blocks ready for the birds- just keep an eye on them to remove them if they get mouldy!


Hope you enjoyed, and happy bird baking!!


Outdoorsy Stef

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