My Favorite Suets
TL/DR Nut flavored suets have always worked the best for me.
Canada jay feeding on fat chunks off of a deer carcass.
Suet is generally rendered beef fat mixed with other things like seeds, nuts, fruit, or even insects mixed in. When I was growing up in the previous century, my mom would get hunks of fat free from her butcher and hang it in an onion bag outside. Or in winter, she would save and freeze bacon grease and put that out. It wasn’t really a squirrel proof operation and we have the chonkiest fox squirrels on the block.
Birds, especially when it’s cold will seek out whatever food they can and we associate crows, ravens, and vultures going after carcasses, but if you watch long enough other birds like woodpeckers and chickadees will come in for a morsel of fat.
I have had the best luck attracting birds with these flavors of suets.
Suet it now a far more refined affair today and you can get cakes, plugs, balls, and bells…heck you can even get vegan suet now. Flavors abound with different types of fruit and seeds and many are now more of a doughy consistency allowing them to be fed year round. I have found that no matter where I have lived, I have had the most variety of birds come in for peanut butter dough—specifically the Woodpecker Attractor Plugs and C&S Woodpecker Treat suet which has mixed nuts. I’ve tried other nut suets, but quite a few can have other things in them besides nuts and suet that the birds aren’t as wild about.
Hairy and downy woodpecker on a suet log going for Woodpecker Attractor Peanut Dough.
The plugs are meant to go into suet log style feeders which you can buy or find a log and drill your own holes in them. But they also will work in the traditional cage style feeders. You can also do things like crumble up the doughs and offer them in tray feeders which can be fun in early spring and late fall because sparrows, catbirds, warblers, and thrashers will eat it. If I’m trying to get pictures of woodpeckers on a specific tree, I’ll rub some dough on the trunk. Sure, squirrels will smell it and go for it, but there will be tiny morsels in the crevasses that only a woodpecker tongue can fit.
Some people want to make their own suet. I don’t enjoy this endeavor. My house smells like the state fair fry booth for a few days afterwards. Is it cheaper? Maybe? But I’d rather throw money at convenience. If you want to make your own dough, hands down the best recipe is from amazing artist, naturalist, one of my all time favorite writers Julie Zickefoose and her beloved Zick Dough Recipe.
You can play around with other suets and disagree with me about which ones are the best for your yard—every yard is different. But