This is Bird Note. At this time of year, birds love fat. With a brilliant flash of

its copper red under wings, a flicker sails into the yard. Just behind it

wings a stubby-tailed red-breasted nut hatch.

Now, a couple of energetic black-cap chickadees dart in and a downy woodpecker

brings up the rear.

What a burst of vitality on a chilly morning. What's the attraction? A cake of

suet, suspended from a branch in a small wire feeder. Suet is beef fat, a high

energy food critical for birds' survival in the colder months. With few insects

available in winter, suet is an especially strong magnet for birds that eat a lot

of bugs in the warmer months. It's also great for birds with bills that are not

adapted to opening seeds.

Bird feeding suppliers now offer a wide array of processed suet cakes,

some studded with berries or seeds. Perhaps a bird's equivalent of a home-baked chocolate chip cookie.

Come to our website, birdnote.org, for more on suet feeders. And hurry, because here come

the jays, they love suet too. For bird note, I'm Mary McCann.