New kind of post for you guys today! Check out some of these DIY Bird Feeders for the Yard! Along with gardening and planting flowers, we enjoy watching the different birds come into the yard looking for food. I figured I would share some ways to easily make some homemade birdfeeders with you.
Sofie and I have been having fun watching Cardinals especially since we have lost a few family members over the last few years. But we also enjoy seeing other birds fly into the yard. Well, we always buy the little suet packs but they get destroyed in a day in a half. So its getting a little expensive to feed these birds. So I figured I would share a few ways to make your own bird feeder at home.
Birds, like most animals, don’t care what the feeding dish looks like so long as there’s food in it. And as long as the feeder is in the tree and is filled with food birds will assume it’s theirs. You can make some very unique bird feeders out of things you have around your house as well as some things you normally consider trash.
DIY Birdfeed #1- Plastic Bowl
A medium size allows several birds to feed at once. Choose a bowl that isn’t too deep but is wide. Wear a glove and heat a nail by holding it with a pair of pliers over a burner. Push the nail easily through four sides of the bowl leaving the same amount of space between each. Use two equal size pieces of twine or cord to hang the feeder from the tree limb. Put the end of the twine through the hole from outside to inside. Tie a knot to secure the rope. Throw the other end over the limb and thread it through the bowl and tie. Do the same to the second rope and fill partially with bird feed.
If you have a bird bath, or other garden decor, that could easily be filled with bird seed as well.
Homemade Birdfeeders #2- Aluminum Pie Pans
Poke a hole in four sides of the pan around the top rim. String the rope in the same way as the bowl feeder, fill with food and hang. Many cookie sheets already have a hole in the ends for hanging. String cookie sheets by these holes then place another rope under the pan and tie into the tree. Fill with bird seed.
Make your own birdfeeder with a wall paper trough
Wallpapering troughs make one of the most unique bird feeders ever. They are plastic and long but not very deep. The troughs can be purchased at a home improvements store and are very inexpensive. Poke holes in the ends and at chosen spots around the sides. Hang from the tree and cover the bottom in seeds.
Easy DIY Birdfeeder- Peanut Butter Covered Pretzel
Tie a thin string around the top of a giant pretzel stick. Cover the pretzel completely and thickly with peanut butter. Roll the pretzel in bird seed and hang from a tree. Give the birds a place to stand while they eat by arranging the pretzel sticks on a pie pan or a plate. Simply cris-cross the rope underneath the plate and glue in place. Now tie the plate into the tree and lay out the pretzels.
You can make hanging feeders out of just about anything that will hold seed. Platters, cups, large clam shells, lids, and even tuna cans make quick bird feeders. Paint the feeders or leave them as is – the bird won’t care.
To keep the food from getting wet hang a lid, pie pan or cookie sheet over the feeder. Tie the cover in a separate tree limb about a foot above the actual feeder. Put tiny pin holes in the bottom of bowls, troughs and pie pans to allow for drainage of any water that does accumulate. For homemade feeders that are more difficult to drain, like a cookie sheet, dump the old seed out occasionally and fill it with fresh.
The feeders don’t necessarily have to be hung from a tree. The wallpaper trough, for instance, can be weighted with rocks then filled with seed and placed on a deck.
Check out some of my other garden related content!
- How to keep pests & rodents out of the garden
- How to plant a more plentiful vegetable garden
- Homemade Infused Olive Oils
