Birds decorate our surroundings with color, plumage, flight, song, courtship and nesting throughout spring and summer. Winter is the season to decorate a tree for their well-being.
Whether choosing an evergreen or shapely deciduous specimen already growing on your property or recycling an indoor tree after Christmas, birds will flock to edible ornaments.
Enlist family, friends, and students to participate by hosting a tree-trimming party.
Organize ornament construction around work stations outlined below:
Natural Trimmings
Stock a variety of natural trimmings such as evergreen boughs from eucalyptus, holly, juniper, boxwood, pine, red cedar, rosemary, podocarpus, loquat, and wax myrtle along with deciduous grapevines. Shape trimmings into small wreaths, swags, garlands, nosegays, and other ornaments. Route finished products to the next station for the addition of edibles.
Ornamental Edibles
Decorate the natural ornaments with berries, pods, and dry seedheads. Securely tuck berries from holly, pyracantha, dogwood, wax myrtle, snowberry, hawthorn, and viburnum into ornaments. Pods from magnolia, locust, okra, legumes, and chili peppers may be fastened with floral tape or wire. Tie dry seedheads from garden flowers like tithonias, rudbeckias, nigella, sunflowers and from grains like wheat, millet, and sorghum onto the ornaments with dental floss or carpet thread.
Edible Chains
Using large needles threaded with dental floss string colorful chains of food to drape onto the branches. Include unsalted popcorn and peanuts in the shell, cranberries, blueberries, rose hips, raisins, grapes, and cheese cubes.
Pine Cones and Sweet Gum Balls
Pine cones and sweet gum balls are used freely for indoor holiday decorations. Both seed holders can be flocked in nut butters and rolled in an assortment of seeds to welcome outdoor avian guests. Niger, safflower, and sunflower are sure to attract seed eaters. Attach an ornament hook or loop of dental floss to the top before attaching to the tree.
Yule Log Bird Feeder
Invited guests can make a Yule log bird feeder to take home to their backyards. Cut 3 inch diameter logs into foot length logs. With a brace and bit drill three 1 inch diameter holes 1 inch deep up and down the front and back of the log. Space the holes three inches apart. Fill the holes with high fat snacks like nut butters or suet. Attach a screw eye to the top of the log for ease in hanging. Chickadees, titmice, wrens, nuthatches and woodpeckers will parade and probe up and down the Yule log.
After trimming the tree, scatter acorns, walnuts, hickory nuts, pecans, peanuts, dry corn, persimmons, and Osage oranges around the base of the tree for ground feeding birds and squirrels. Refresh and replace the edible ornaments throughout the winter making sure to promptly discard decaying edibles.
The tree for the birds will bring feathered friends for the Great Backyard Bird Countsponsored by the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University in February of 2009. Once again you have an occasion to assemble family, friends and students around the tree for the birds.
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