How to Make Bird Seed Ornaments and Wreaths

Bird seed ornaments are shapes of seed held together with a binder, hung from a branch the way you would hang a holiday ornament. The simplest version needs four ingredients: bird seed, unflavored gelatin, cold water, and boiling water, pressed into cookie cutters and chilled overnight, following a recipe from Audubon magazine. A bird seed wreath is the same idea at a larger scale, usually set in a Bundt pan with rendered suet as the binder. This guide covers both recipes, which binders the sources support, what to leave out (salt and sugar), and how weather and mold limit how long they should hang.

This guide covers homemade treats for wild birds. It is not advice on bird nutrition or health care. Leave out salted or sugared ingredients, take down anything soft, wet, or moldy, and if you see a sick or injured bird, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator or your state wildlife agency rather than treating it yourself.

What Holds Bird Seed Ornaments Together

Every bird seed ornament needs something to bind loose seed into a shape that survives a branch and a few beaks. The sources we found describe three binders:

Many recipes online also add corn syrup and flour to the gelatin mix. The Audubon ornament recipe does not call for either, and we follow it: the Maryland Department of Natural Resources says salted or sugared foods can be dangerous for small birds, so we leave sweeteners out entirely.

How to Make Bird Seed Ornaments (Gelatin Recipe)

This is the Audubon magazine recipe, with the quantities as published. Audubon lists 12 cookie cutters for the batch.

You need:

• 2 cups of birdseed
• 1 tablespoon of unflavored gelatin
• 2 tablespoons of cold water
• 1/3 cup of boiling water
• 12 cookie cutters, a needle, and thread

Steps:

• Bloom the gelatin. Combine the gelatin and cold water and let it sit for one minute.
• Dissolve it. Add the boiling water and stir until the gelatin is fully dissolved.
• Coat the seed. Add the birdseed and stir thoroughly, until every seed is wet.
• Fill the molds. Set the cookie cutters on a tray and press the mixture in firmly so it fills each mold completely. Refrigerate overnight.
• Unmold. Let the ornaments come to room temperature, then gently push them out of the cutters.
• Add a hanger. Use a needle to pull thread through each ornament at least a half inch from the edge, and tie a knot.

Two suggestions of our own, not part of the published recipe: take the instruction to press firmly seriously, since the packing is what holds the shape together, and choose simple, thick cutters (circles, hearts, wide stars) over thin, detailed ones.

How to Make a Bird Seed Wreath

Audubon’s bird seed wreath recipe uses rendered suet instead of gelatin, which suits a heavier, larger shape.

You need: a Bundt pan, a large pot, wide ribbon, 3 blocks of rendered suet (sold at garden centers), 1/2 cup of additive-free nut butter, 9 cups of bird seed, and dried fruits and berries.

• Melt the suet in the pot over low heat, stirring constantly. Do not let it boil.
• Add the nut butter and stir until it melts. Remove the pot from the heat.
• Stir in the bird seed.
• Spray the Bundt pan with cooking spray, scatter berries and dried fruit in the bottom, and pour in the seed and suet mixture.
• Refrigerate overnight to harden, then turn the wreath out of the pan.
• Tie a ribbon around it and hang it outside. Audubon says to hang it three feet or less from a window to prevent collisions.

Because the binder is fat, this is a cold-weather wreath. Arkansas Extension says suet feeders work best in colder or freezing temperatures because fat tends to melt when it is warmer, and that raw suet turns rancid in warm temperatures. FeederWatch gives the same warning about suet in hot weather unless it has been specially processed.

A dense block made to fit a wire suet cage is a different project from a hanging wreath; that is the job of bird seed cakes, which follow their own recipes.

Choosing the Seed and Extras

The seed you pick decides who comes. The Audubon Guide to Bird Feeding says black-oil sunflower seed appeals to the greatest number of birds, that sunflower, millet, and cracked corn are the three most popular types of birdseed in blends, and that relatively few species prefer milo, wheat, and oats. The same label checks that point to the best bird seed mix for wild birds apply to an ornament batch: more sunflower and millet, less filler.

For extras, stay with plain ingredients:

• Fruit: Audubon’s wreath uses dried fruits and berries, and its garland uses dried or fresh cranberries, dried apple slices, and fresh orange slices. FeederWatch says grapes and raisins (without preservatives) are favorites of many fruit-eating birds, and that any fruit that turns moldy should be thrown out because some molds create toxins harmful to birds.
• Nuts and popcorn: Audubon’s garland calls for whole peanuts that are unsalted and preferably raw, and air-popped popcorn that is unsalted and unbuttered. Illinois DNR says not to use salted or seasoned popcorn, and FeederWatch says to avoid salted peanuts or peanuts roasted with coatings or flavorings.
• Leave out: salt, sugar, and sweet or salty kitchen leftovers. Maryland DNR also says to avoid bread and other table scraps, which spoil quickly and can grow bacteria and mold.

The Audubon guide notes that fruit-eating birds such as robins, waxwings, bluebirds, and mockingbirds rarely eat birdseed, so a seed ornament studded with cranberries may reach a wider set of birds than seed alone.

Hanging Ornaments and Wreaths Safely

Placement matters as much as the recipe. The Audubon guide recommends placing feeders less than three feet from a window or more than 30 feet away to reduce collisions, and Audubon’s wreath recipe repeats the three-feet-or-less advice. Audubon’s ornament recipe suggests hanging them from tree branches, or from a fire escape where that is allowed.

Watch the string. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service article warns that string, twine, and yarn can wrap around the legs and necks of birds and nestlings, cutting off circulation and often killing them, and that stringy items can become a choking hazard if mistaken for food. That warning is about loose fibers offered as nesting material, but it applies to leftover hangers too. Our suggestion: keep each hanger short, tie it snugly, and take down the thread or ribbon as soon as the ornament is gone.

Weather, Mold, and Clean-Up

Homemade ornaments do not last like a feeder full of dry seed. The Audubon guide warns that damp seed may grow mold that can be fatal to birds, and that uneaten seed can become soggy and grow mold. Maryland DNR says spoiled foods can grow bacteria and mold that can harm or even kill songbirds.

Our suggestion, based on those warnings:

• Make ornaments and wreaths for the cold months, when the binder stays firm.
• Check them after rain, snow melt, or a warm spell. Take down anything soft, crumbling, discolored, or moldy and throw it away.
• Hang only what the birds will finish in a reasonable time, and keep the rest in the refrigerator.
• Rake up fallen bits under the branch. The Audubon guide recommends raking up spilled grain and hulls, and fallen pieces of an ornament are no different.

A pine cone rolled in seed is a cousin of these ornaments and follows the same cold-weather logic. The Audubon guide’s peanut butter version mixes one part peanut butter with five parts cornmeal and packs it into the crevices of a large pine cone.

How We Put This Guide Together

This guide is based on published sources, not on ornaments we made and hung ourselves. The recipes are from Audubon magazine and the Audubon Guide to Bird Feeding. Ingredient warnings come from Project FeederWatch, the Maryland and Illinois Departments of Natural Resources, University of Arkansas Extension, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Where we add a practical suggestion, we label it. Our general method is on the How We Review page.

Bird Seed Ornaments: FAQ

Can I make bird seed ornaments without gelatin?

Yes. Audubon’s wreath uses rendered suet with additive-free nut butter as the binder, and University of Arkansas Extension describes peanut butter mixed with cornmeal or flour. Both are fat-based, so they belong outside only in cold weather.

Can I add corn syrup or honey to a bird seed ornament recipe?

We do not. The Audubon ornament recipe works without any sweetener, and Maryland DNR says salted or sugared foods can be dangerous for small birds.

Can I hang bird seed ornaments in summer?

Fat-based ornaments, no: Arkansas Extension says suet melts and turns rancid when it is warmer, and to avoid peanut butter in summer. Gelatin ornaments set in the refrigerator, and the sources above warn that wet, soft seed grows mold, so we treat them as cold-season treats as well.

How long do bird seed ornaments last outside?

Until the birds finish them or the weather breaks them down, whichever comes first. None of the sources give a number of days, so check them after every rain or warm spell and take down any that turn soft or moldy.

What birds eat bird seed ornaments?

It depends on the seed. Black-oil sunflower appeals to the greatest number of birds, according to the Audubon guide, while suet attracts insect-eating birds such as woodpeckers, wrens, chickadees, nuthatches, and titmice. Fruit added to the mix may draw robins, bluebirds, and other fruit eaters that rarely take seed.

Final Thoughts

Bird seed ornaments and wreaths are simple: plain seed, a binder that holds, a short hanger, and cold weather. Follow the Audubon gelatin recipe for small shapes or the suet wreath for a larger one, leave out salt and sugar, and take down anything that turns soft or moldy. More guides to seed and feeding are in our Bird Food section.

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