For us and many of our valued customers, the true start to winter and suet season is when our good friend Dave Card drops off the first load of Fat Heads to our stores. These hand-crafted reclaimed wood creations are designed exclusively by Mr. Card not too far from our store in Almonte.
Each Fat Head features a unique emotional face and strategically placed holes custom designed to fit small chunks of suet. When hung in your yard, these special feeders double as a provider of adequate nutrition to our winter birds and a wonderful piece of yard art.
While these might be our most unique style of suet feeder, they are not the only ones we carry! In fact, we carry quite a few different models of suet cages and feeders but first, let’s quickly talk about what kinds of birds you can expect to find on your suet over the coming months.
Birds That Love Suet
When you think suet, think woodpeckers. If these busy birds are something you love to observe, you are on the right track to attracting them to and keeping them in your backyard. Downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers are all frequent visitors to suet cages and if you are set up properly (we’ll get to that), you can even have a chance encounter with large pileated woodpeckers on your suet.
Additionally, acrobatic nuthatches, friendly chickadees, and vocal blue jays are also common visitors to winter suet feeders. Last year, we were even treated to a rare sighting of a tufted titmouse that we might not have otherwise have seen if not for our selection of suet.
Suet Cages
Entering the world of suet cages can seem quite simple until you walk into one of our stores here in Ottawa. While we do carry traditional suet cages used strictly to hold suet and be hung from a pole or tree, we also carry a number of other innovative designs to make the experience that much better for your birds.
Suet Cage with Tail Prop
While most of the suet feeders are a cage in design, they come in few different configurations, mainly to accommodate larger birds such as pileated woodpeckers. One of our small cage feeders features what is known as a tail prop. A tail prop is a piece of wood that protrudes beneath the cage and allows larger birds to easily perch, as they use their large tail feathers to keep themselves steady while feeding.
Additionally, we also have custom made suet cage feeders built directly into a reclaimed wood frame. These wooden cage feeders are available in either a one or two cage configuration, allowing for additional birds to feed or once again, allow pileated woodpeckers the ability to safely perch and feed.