How To Make Bird Feeders

The widespread availability of many types of bird feeders on the market has largely made it unnecessary for many people to even consider building their own. After all, why should you bother with all the work and effort involved in creating one from scratch, when you can simply drive to your local pet supply store or click on your mouse a few times and almost instantly have one sitting in your yard?

Well as it turns out, there are quite a few good reasons for learning how to make bird feeders, not the least of which is the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that you and your kids can gain from undertaking such a project. This will also help kids learn more about birds and their habits as well as provide you with an opportunity to teach them about responsibility and caring for the surroundings.

Those should be enough reasons to convince you to take on this task, so let’s get started building a simple bird feeder!

What you will need:
    birdseed
    a dowel or small wooden rod
    a pair of scissors
    thin wires about 2 feet long
    nails for punching holes
    a gallon milk jug

Here is the procedure:

Wash the milk jug thoroughly to ensure that any traces of milk are gone completely.

Put the cap back on and place the jug on a solid working surface

With a sharp knife, cut two large holes on the front and back sides of the jug. Make the holes about 3 to 4 inches in diameter and cut them about 2 or 3 inches from the bottom. This is where your birds will be feeding. It is important to make sure that any birdseed you place in the feeder will not spill out of these holes.

Using the nail, punch two smaller holes, one under each larger hole. Push the dowel through one of these smaller holes and out the other, so that they provide a perch for the birds.

Again using the nail, punch two holes in the neck of the milk jug and run the wire through them making a sort of loop. This is where you will be hanging the feeder from a suitable branch.

Fill the feeder with birdseed–black oil sunflower seeds work the best

Sit back and wait for the birds to drop by!