It is really quite simple to make bird feeders for the wild birds in your area. Some commercial bird feeders are very expensive, but making your own is easy and economical.
Use these ideas to create a bird feeder in your backyard today!
1. Use hollow citrus skins to make bird feeders.
After eating an orange or squeezing it (or a lemon or lime) for its juice, save the rind. If you are going to be nailing the citrus peel cup to a tree trunk or hanging it, then fill it with loose seed. If you are just setting the citrus cups out on the ground or along a wall or fence, mix some peanut butter or suet with the seed to keep it from spilling if it tips over.
2. Spread peanut butter over the surface of a large pinecone.
Then roll the pinecone in loose birdseed. You can do this with various sizes of pinecone. Tie a piece of string, twine, or yarn to the top of the pinecone and hang it from a tree branch. Make sure there are branches nearby where birds can perch.
3. Use empty plastic milk jugs to make bird feeders.
Cut a hole in the side of the jug about 3 inches from the bottom. Tie string or yarn to the jug’s handle (or twist wire around the handle) to hang it, and fill the bottom with birdseed.
4. Plastic 2-liter bottles can be used similarly.
Cut a hole in the side of an empty 2-liter and tie string around the bottle’s neck to make a hanger. Put the cap back on to secure the string. Then fill the bottom with birdseed. You can also do this with smaller plastic bottles, such as water or soda bottles.
You can also recycle a pill bottle, here’s how: Prescription Bottle Craft: Bird Feeders
5. Suet cakes can be placed in mesh holders and nailed to tree trunks.
6. Recycle paper, plastic, or Styrofoam cups by making them into bird feeders.
Tie one end of a piece of yarn about 12 inches long around the middle of a wide craft stick (these wooden sticks look like popsicle sticks and can be found in craft stores). Then make a hole in the bottom of the cup and poke the yarn up through the hole.
The cup then “sits” on the craft stick and the yarn can be used to tie it to a branch. You can fill it with seed if the cup is not too deep, or spread peanut butter on the outside of the cup and roll it in loose seed.
7. Shallow, plastic containers, such as cream cheese comes in, make good bird feeders.
Make a feeder by following the directions for a cup feeder in #6 above. Because they are shallow, you can fill these with loose seed, suet, or “bird cakes.”
We made a bird feeder by putting the seed in a net bag with peanut butter, but it was a terrible idea because the birds broke through the net first use and it was a bird feeder no more.
We have a big ten-window feeder we purchased that hangs outside of our front window, so we can watch the birds eat, but I’d love to have something out back that we made together again.
Thanks for the tips and ideas!
These are some great suggestions for bird feeders. We have one feeder in our back yard and the birds eat like crazy!
These sounds so easy and would be a great learning experience for my children. Thanks for the tips!