Gardener Creates a Simple ‘Chirp Charcuterie Board’ in 5 Easy Steps — and Birds Are Obsessed With It

With the dawn of springtime, birds like orioles leave their nests in the South where they breed and mate during the winter, and migrate long distances to the North. Aim your camera high and you’ll find them perched on the branches of spring trees. This spring, a TikTok birder, @thechirpcorner, added a creative twist to her bird feeder to attract orioles and other birds and make them return every day. Her innovative “chirp charcuterie board” was so tantalizing that two orioles started fighting for the food, she shared in one of her videos.

What is a 'bird buffet'?

@thechirpcorner is one of the first birders known to introduce the concept of these chirp charcuterie boards a.k.a. “bird buffets,” inspired by the cheeseboards and charcuterie boards humans eat from. Dozens of videos on her channel illustrate delicious bird food platters. Her videos also feature ASMR effects like sounds of splattering food into the feeder and bird sounds as they enjoy the meal. In this particular video, her birdcam captured two black-necked Baltimore orioles.

Choose the platter and fill the feeder

The video opens with the birdkeeper laying out the buffet in her hanging wooden feeder. The birder first brings a large pink spatula and spills a pool of sunflower seed mix in the feeder tray. Maria Kincaid, a bird nerd and ornithologist at FeatherSnap, told Homes & Gardens that choosing the platter and filling up the tray is the initial step "you need for a bird buffet."

Arrange the snacks on the platter

Kincaid emphasized the importance of feeding the right kind of food to the birds in the buffet, preferably those that are highly nutritious and not just stuffed with carbs. "Feeding food or scraps from your kitchen can be a great way to cut down on food waste, but it is important to make sure that if you’re offering kitchen food to the birds in your yard, you consider that you’re giving them foods of nutritional value," explained the bird expert.

In the TikTok video, the birder, the birder follows the seed mix by adding scoops of suet nuggets, shelled and unshelled peanuts, and suet balls to the feeder tray. She also adds a personalized touch to the feeder by adding the oriole’s favorite foods – a slice of orange, dried mealworms, and a glass jar filled with red grape jelly - all of which are indeed nutritious.

Remove seeds from fruits

Within seconds, an oriole swoops and dives to grab the meal. Another few moments, and a second oriole pops up. Before she realizes, the two orioles get into a fight over who will eat what. Kincaid suggested that birders should remove seeds and pips if they choose to add fruits to the bird buffet.

Avoid seasoned foods and nuts

"Avoid any seasoned foods and nuts. All foods should be plain, cooked where necessary, and cut up into smaller pieces for the birds to consume easily," warned Kinchaid. Another video in the series, which has garnered more than 10 million views, displays a compilation of clips that show the different bird guests visiting their “chirp charcuterie board” feeder to relish the banquet. The guest list includes a white-breasted nuthatch, a tufted titmouse, a blue jay, a rose-breasted grosbeak, a Northern cardinal, and a red-bellied woodpecker, apart from the Baltimore orioles mentioned above.

The buffet needs water, too

As much as you focus on the variety of traditional, healthy bird food, it is important to provide a source of hydration for the feathered visitors. While other birds were immersed in enjoying the buffet, a woodpecker in the video seemed a bit overwhelmed by so much food. "The woodpecker looked around like, ‘Wow, all of this for me,’" commented @shebakes.

Different clips received different reactions and observations from bird enthusiasts. Referring to an oriole dipping its beak in the jar of grape jelly, @midnightsnacker wrote, “I love how the Oriole birds always go for the jelly.” People also shared different comments about the bird visitors appearing in the video. “That oriole is gorgeous,” said @quinlemmon. @bennywilde commented, “To be a bird in your neighborhood!”   

You can follow @thechirpcorner on TikTok for beautiful bird-feeding videos.