Project 2: Build a Bird Feeder

Why would you want to do this? Birds are not only useful, they also are beautiful and fun to watch.

Why wouldn’t you want to do this? You don’t want to have to buy birdseed or don’t like creatures hanging around your windows. Some people don’t like that spilled birdseed attracts squirrels and chipmunks (who are actually helping by cleaning it up!); others complain that seed lures rats.

How does this differ from a store-bought version? This project may behave differently than a store-bought model because there is actually quite a bit of engineering that goes into bird feeders, including details that help the seed fall and flow properly and contain the seed while keeping it accessible (you may wonder how birds ever fed themselves before we came along!).

Cost comparison: You’re mainly using objects that you already have around the house, so a homemade bird feeder is practically free.

Skills needed: Basic handling of a knife and a saw. This can be a good project for teaching kids how to use these tools properly.

You may not know it, but songbirds are essential to our lives. They keep many bug populations in check by foraging and eating all kinds of insects, and they act as pollinators in their own way. Many have adapted to human intrusion and manage to live and thrive among our buildings and paved roads. Why not help them do the work that helps us? Putting out seed feeders supplements their diets while thanking them for reducing the number of mosquitoes, houseflies, and other nasties that we dislike.

Bird feeders can be made out of many materials—a bird feeder can be as simple as a large pinecone smeared with peanut butter, rolled in birdseed, and attached to a piece of ribbon or yarn. Both of my children made pinecone birdfeeders as Mother’s Day projects in preschool, and the painstakingly handwritten “I Love You, Mommy” on the cards made me cry both times.

Songbirds bring interest and fun to otherwise still, snowy days. Their bright colors stand out against the monochromatic winter landscape, and they are reminders that the warmth of spring always follows the cold.

Store-bought bird feeders are surprisingly expensive, and you can let your imagination run wild and build bird feeders relatively easily out of basic materials. You can salvage the materials for a feeder, quite often from your own kitchen recycling bin. My husband voiced his dismay about the plastic 2-liter-bottle feeder hanging from our Japanese maple, so if you’d prefer not to showcase your recyclables, you can find what you need for many simple feeder styles at a local hardware or thrift store. For this project, I avoided the 2-liter bottle, but any plastic bottle or jar will work.

Materials:

•Plastic container with a screw-top lid, wide mouth preferred

•1-inch- or 1½-inch-diameter PVC pipe longer than the diameter of the container

•Pencil or marker

•Saw

•Utility knife or X-ACTO knife

•Single-hole punch or drill

•Chopstick

•Two lightweight rubber bands

•Screw eye with washer and nut

•Plant hook or ceiling hook (if placing under cover, such as a porch) for hanging

Step 1: Clean the container and remove any labels.

Step 2: Cut the piece of PVC in half lengthwise. You will use one of the halves to form the seed holder.

The PVC pipe, cut in half lengthwise.

Step 3: Lay the jar on its side on a counter, and then use something to hold it in place (e.g., a heavy book or brick on either side). Take a piece of the cut PVC pipe and place the end against the side of the jar, about a quarter of the way up from the bottom of the jar. Trace the outline of the pipe onto the container (you’ll end up with a sideways capital “D”). Turn the jar over 180 degrees and repeat in the same position.

Trace the sideways “D” shape on one side of the container.

Step 4: Cut the traced shape with the utility knife or X-ACTO blade. Cut it a little smaller than you traced it. This is important because you want the pipe to fit snugly in this hole.

Step 5: Insert the hole punch into the D-shaped cut and punch a hole in the plastic beneath the cut, about ½ inch down and centered. Repeat on the other side. This is the hole for the chopstick perch you’ll insert in Step 8.

Mark the other side, looking through the plastic to line it up.

Punch a hole centered underneath each sideways “D” cutout.

Step 6: Slide the PVC halfway through the D-shaped holes. Mark the ends that stick out and then remove the pipe. Cut off the ends a few inches out from your marks (you want the pipe to be longer than the container). Slide the pipe back in.

Step 7: Poke or drill a hole centered in the top of the feeder. Screw the screw eye through the hole and attach the washer and nut to the screw eye on the inside of the feeder.

Each side should look like this, with the holes lined up.

Stick the PVC pipe through both D-shaped holes.

Step 8: Poke the chopstick through the hole-punch holes, centering it to form a perch on either side of the container. To help keep the perch in place, twist a rubber band onto each end of the chopstick, flush against the container.

Step 9: Fill the feeder with birdseed and hang outside. Depending on how secure the lid is and how tightly the screw eye fits into the hole, you may want to hang the feeder under cover so water doesn’t get inside and spoil the seed.

Mark and cut the pipe to leave a few inches.

Secure the chopstick perch.

The screw eye creates a hanger in the lid.

Additional Advice

•You can use an old wok, turned upside down with the handle removed and a hole drilled in the center, as a roof/squirrel baffle over any bird feeder.

•Another possibility for a baffle is a wide bowl—metal is best because squirrel claws can’t get a grip on it. I salvaged an old deep metal bowl, drilled a large hole in the bottom of it, and mounted it upside down under the feeder on the pole of a hanging feeder stand.