Winter's Best Bird Food One of the best cold-weather bird foods is suet, a dense beef fat. A winter suet feeder invites birds to your yard that you might otherwise never see. Suet, a valuable addition to your bird feeding program, provides birds with the extra energy they need to stay warm in the winter. From late fall through early spring, it's a good idea to buy three pounds of suet at a time and freeze it in half-pound chunks. That way, your suet feeder never runs low.
Most suet feeders are wire mesh cages.
The mesh needs to be just large enough for a hungry bird's bill to reach through, but not so large that a crow or raccoon could make off with large pieces of suet. A suet cage should be constructed of plastic-coated wire instead of uncoated metal. The plastic eliminates the possibility that any part of a bird would freeze to the uncoated surface. The cage needs a back door for inserting the suet. You can find suet cages for sale, or you can make your own.