FOR THE BIRDS

For parents interested in creating hands-on, crafty activities during the holidays, and making fun family memories, there are the usual gingerbread houses, making and decorating colorful sugar cookies and even the classic noodle picture frame ornaments. But for those parents looking for something a little different, that helps their children connect with nature, the South Fork Natural History Museum has the answer.

Since it opened in 2005, the museum has offered an annual “Decorate A Holiday Tree for the Birds” workshop for children and families around the holidays. In the one-day class, run by SOFO’s Education and Communications Director, Carol Crasson, participants are taught by SOFO staff how to make bird-friendly decorations and ornaments using seeds, dried fruits, and other ingredients and materials.

Participants in the workshop decorate trees on the ground of the museum, located on the Bridgehampton Sag Harbor Turnpike, but they’re also encouraged to bring a shoebox or empty cardboard box to take home some of their creations to replicate the effort in their own back yards.

This year’s family friendly workshop will be held on Saturday, December 11, at 10:30 a.m.

Decorating trees for the birds is not only fun but can be a service to the natural environment.

“The ornaments meet the appetite of a variety of birds who are looking for food in the winter,” Crasson said. While birds are largely capable of surviving through the winter without human intervention, food is harder to come by for them during the colder months, and SOFO staff members will point out that development in recent years has made traditional winter food sources even harder to find for birds than in years past.

Decorating a tree for the birds at home is also a great way to attract a variety of birds and engage in the enjoyment of bird watching at home.

The SOFO class is a great family activity and provides parents with the knowledge they need to make the ornaments, but it’s fairly easy to replicate this activity at home for families who may not have the time or desire to attend SOFO’s workshop.

There are certain foods that are desirable, and others to avoid when making ornaments or decorating a tree to attract birds. Crasson likes to make “suet balls,” using suet, an animal fat similar to lard. Suet, which can be purchased at most local grocery, can be rolled into balls with various types of seeds, or just plain bird seed. Crasson suggests encasing the suet balls in mesh and said the mesh bags used to hold avocados and mandarin oranges at grocery stores are a perfect material for encasing the suet balls.

Suet balls are a particularly worthwhile food to make for birds.

“Suet is an important energy source for birds,” Crasson said. Adding fat to their diet is particularly good for helping birds stay warm in the winter, she noted.

In addition to making SOFO balls, Crasson also teaches participants how to make garland style tree ornaments in the workshop. Thin ribbons provide the base, and Crasson said she not only ties a knot at the end but also puts a small piece of sponge at the end of the ribbon to prevent ingredients from falling off. She uses a needle and thread method to string the garland with a wide variety of fruits and other ingredients, noting dried fruits are particularly good to work with. Dried cranberries, apricots, and raisins are big winners, and un-hulled peanuts are a treat for birds as well, while Cheerios are good for younger children with small hands that can’t yet be trusted to wield a needle and thread. She said pipe cleaners are a good substitute for the needle for younger kids, and said that the Cheerios, unsalted pretzels, and apple slices will work with the pipe cleaner method. Pipe cleaners are also particularly useful for closing up the suet bags and creating hooks to hang them from the trees, she added.

In place of suet, good old fashioned peanut butter (preferably unsalted) can also be used, and the old standby of a pinecone slathered in peanut butter and rolled in seeds is always fun for children to make. The pipe cleaners or extra ribbon can be used to hang those ornaments.

Experienced birder Jim Ash has some additional suggestions for what foods and ingredients to use — and a few to avoid — when making bird friendly ornaments and decorations.

“One of the most liked foods that a seed mix can have in it is black oil sunflower seeds,” he said. “They are very popular and high in nutrition for many of the seed eating birds.” Ornaments with seeds will always attract birds like cardinals, finches, sparrows, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, doves, blue jays, grackles, and blackbirds.

Another thistle-like seed called niger bird seed (pronounced ni-jer), is very popular with birds like the American goldfinch, pine siskins, redpolls, and other winter finches, Ash added.

Suet is particularly attractive to woodpeckers, but is also interesting to chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and occasionally kinglets. Dried fruit like cranberries and raisins are popular with birds like cardinals, robins, catbirds, bluebirds, woodpeckers and other suet feeding birds, Ash said.

Ash cautioned against using processed breads as part of any ornaments or decorations for birdy, and added that bread is bad for water fowl as well.

“One of the worst things you can feed birds is white bread, especially ducks and other waterfowl at local parks,” he said. “It has almost no nutritional value and can lead to wing deformities (angel wing) when fed to young ducklings.”

Decorating a tree or making ornaments for birds is not only a fun holiday activity, but it has the bonus of being timely for people and families who have a general interest in birds.

“Winter is probably the optimum time to feed birds in our area when the variety of species rises as they withdraw from more northerly areas to escape harsh conditions and find a reliable source of food for the duration of the season,” Ash said.

But he added that it’s important to locate any kind of feeding station close to shrubs or trees to give the birds a chance to flee quickly to a safe location when a predator shows up.

“Coopers hawks and sharp shinned hawks will often hunt feeder locations trying to get a meal,” he said, pointing out that birds of prey, just like finches and cardinals, need to eat too.

He had one final bit of important advice when it comes to feeding birds in the winter.

“If you decide to run a feeding station, be prepared to fidget with the squirrels,” he said. “They will find it.”