Here in Ukraine, we love salo; it’s a national product as haggis in Scotland and… something else somewhere else. Basically, salo is a raw pig fat with skin and a bit of meat in it or no meat at all. It usually salted or smoked for preservation. Despite our love for this product at least in our family we always have some leftovers that aren’t that fresh to be eaten. But they aren’t lost. Usually, we collect those pieces and use them to feed tit birds at winter season. Why? Because they are cute as hell. Also, they are helping a lot in the garden by picking all those bug larvas that spend winter in the tree bark and by eating harmful insects the rest of the yer. But to survive the winter tit birds require a good source of fat for their ration. That’s why we hang pieces of salo on the tree branches. You can just use a twine for this, but it is too uncomplicated for me. So I decided to convert a cheap wooden kitchen spatula that came as a bonus with some food product I don’t remember into tit bird salo feeder. You can see the alterations I’ve made in it on the photo below. I finished my feeder with a coat of boiled sunflower seed oil (anything will do). It is turned to be a little bit more convenient than a piece of twine, so it wasn’t that much of an overdue after all.
To put salo into feeder just tie it into place with a twine using holes and notches in the spatula. But first, you need to prepare salo by cutting off all salted or maybe spoiled pieces (salt is bad for the birds). Then I just hooked the feeder on a tree.
The tit birds really love to eat salo (I believe not salted, or spiced animal fat in any other form (like lard for example) will do as well). Unfortunately, I haven’t made any photos of birds at the feeder because it’s hard to get close enough without scaring the birds and also my camera gives me more of frustration than photos, but you can google pictures on “синиці сало.” So yeah… have a merry… anything.
