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When it's −20° and a chickadee has to eat a third of its body weight just to see tomorrow, suet is the answer. It's the highest-energy food you can put out — rendered fat packed with seed, nuts, fruit or insect protein — and woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees will work a suet cage all winter long.
Thirteen cakes, each built for a different visitor: peanut for the woodpeckers, insect grub for the protein hunters, fruit and berry for the mixed winter crowd, hot pepper for when the squirrels have decided your feeder is a buffet. All of them fit a standard cage and hold their shape in the cold.
Pair suet with a seed blend and you've covered nearly every bird that visits a Canadian backyard between October and April.
Questions from the backyard
When should I put suet out in Canada?
September through April is peak season, when birds need the calories most. Plenty of feeders run suet year-round — in a hot spell, hang it in shade and put out smaller amounts so it's eaten fast rather than sitting in the sun.
Which birds eat suet?
Woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and in migration, kinglets and the occasional warbler.
Where should I hang it?
In a cage feeder near a tree trunk — woodpeckers like to brace their tails against something solid.
Does hot pepper suet hurt birds?
No. Birds can't taste capsaicin at all — they don't have the receptor for it. Squirrels very much can.