May 5, 20202 min read

How to Make Birdseed Cookies

What are birdseed cookies? They are cookies for the birds! They are made out of birdseed and gelatin and formed into a shape with a cookie cutter. Kids love to make these and of course birds love to eat them. They also make great gifts kids can make for grandparents, teachers or even for Mother's Day or Father's Day.

How do you make birdseed cookies?

Supplies needed:

3 cups of birdseed (small seed works best)
2 small packets of unflavored gelatin
2 cups of water
A pot to boil the water in
A bowl
A spoon
Cookie cutters
Cookie tray
Wax paper, newspaper or parchment

How to make birdseed cookies:

Set up your work space by lining a cookie tray or two (we used 2) with wax paper, parchment or newspaper. This is just to make clean up easier. Then place your cookie cutters on top of that.

Now to make the gelatin, bring 2 cups of water to a boil and mix in 2 small packet of unflavored gelatin. Stir often for 3-5 minutes. Then turn the burner off and let it cool slightly.

Pour 3 cups of birdseed into a large bowl. Then add the gelatin. Stir until the birdseed is moist. It will be pretty soupy. You need it to be, because the gelatin is going to act as a natural glue to keep the birdseed together.

Now for the fun part. Fill each cookie cutter with birdseed. Press slightly to make sure it's all packed in tightly. You don't want air pockets or it could fall apart easily later.

If you would like to turn these birdseed cookies into ornaments to hang them in a tree, at this point you could use a wooden skewer to poke a hole in them. When they dry, simply put a string or ribbon through them and hang them in a tree. If not, just leave the birdseed cookies to dry overnight.

The next morning, slowly push the birdseed cookies out of the cookie cutters and you have fun shaped birdseed cookies. Now bring them outside for the birds. We put a few on our bird feeder picnic table and some in trees and the grass. It was fun to watch the birds eat their cookies.