Who says the fun of decorating trees has to end after the holidays? One way to have fun making ornaments and learn about ecology is to make edible ornaments for birds.

After making the bird food ornaments, hang them on trees where your troop meets or at a local park. Birds will enjoy your beautiful and tasty ornaments through the cold winter months.

Before You Begin

Purchase the materials.

Note: This project should not be done if the temperatures in your area exceed 70 degrees. (The suet will melt and may cause problems for the birds by getting into their feathers.)

Materials
Note: Make sure that all of the materials you use are 100% organic!

• Peanut Butter
• Suet (look for this at your local grocery store's meat counter or deli)
• Cornmeal or Cracked Corn
• Shortening
• Raffia
• Assorted Nuts and Seeds
• Bird-friendly food like cereal, bread slices, peanuts, or dead log

Creating Hard Suet

To give the birds the seeds and fat they need, we'll first create hard suet. It's easy to do. Simply mix together 1 cup of peanut butter, 3 cups of suet, and 2-4 cups of either cornmeal or cracked corn. Once you've made the mixture, you can let the kids go to work creating their ornaments.

Creating the Ornaments

Now let the kids get creative! While they'll probably come up with their own ideas, here are some suggestions from the kids we worked with. Use a cookie cutter to form the suet mixture into a desired shape (we made a star), then dip into a seed mixture of your choice. Or, place the suet mixture into an ice cream cone, and decorate the top with seeds. Finally, cut an orange in half and remove the fruit. Place the suet mixture into the empty orange peel, and decorate the top with seeds. Finally, use raffia to hang the ornaments on the tree.

Creating Soft Suet Ornaments

You can also make a soft-suet mixture. Simply mix together 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of shortening, and three cups of cornmeal until they form a paste. To make an ornament, simply use a cookie cutter to cut a shape out of a piece of bread. Let the bread dry overnight. Once the bread has dried, smear the soft-suet mixture onto the shape and then decorate with seeds. Or, smear the mixture onto a pine cone and decorate with seeds. As with the other hard-suet ornaments, use raffia to hang the ornaments on the tree.

Creating the Garland

No decorated tree would be complete without a garland - and this too can be a treat for the birds. Simply string pretzels, cereal, peanuts, or other bird-friendly food onto a piece of raffia. Not only will the birds eat what you've strung, once spring arrives they can use the raffia to help build their nests. Now just move that old tree outside, gather the kids, and start decorating! The birds will certainly thank you for it!