Making a Bird Feeder

If you need an activity to do with the kids that is pretty simple, and not too messy, making a bird feeder should be right on the top of that list. Just make sure that you don’t put the bird food in the bird feeder inside the house - it could end up being a big mess.

A quick web search for how to build your own bird feeder will bring back lots of results and options. Almost all of them are too complicated for my simple brain and low patience. I don’t generally do well with huge long craft projects, and so I need something that’s simple, pretty quick to complete, but that will work well. If you want to build something that's a bit more advanced than the below, then go for it. My wife has a lot more patience with crafts like this, and will often build things that look quite a bit nicer than what I'm able to come up with.

After digging through a ton of options, I stumbled upon a picture of what looked like a super easy bird feeder, and it used items that we had in our home. All that you need is:

• Gallon milk carton, empty and washed
• Tape
• String or rope
• Glue
• Wood rods or skewers, at least 12 inches long

The last item on the list is the most likely thing you won’t have around. Do you have chopsticks laying around? If not, wood rods (dowels) or skewers aren't too expensive. I like the skewers option as they can be used for other activities beyond just crafts fairly easily.

Building this is easy:

• Cut out large openings on all sides of the milk carton. Leave about 2 inches clearance on the bottom of the carton.
• Put tape around the cut edges - this is to help keep the birds from getting cut.
• Cut small holes in all 4 sides, about ½ inch below the openings
• Stick the wood rods through, all the way across so they go through the holes on each side
• Cut a small hole in the top of the lid.
• Put the rope through this hole, and tie a solid knot - it will be holding the weight of the jug
• Screw the lid on, and glue it in place

That’s it. You’ve now got a simple bird feeder that you can hang most anywhere. Take the bird feeder outside and find a good place to hang it up - somewhere far enough from the house that your kids can watch it without scaring the birds away. Put the bird food in it and hang it up. Your kids will have a fun time watching the birds fly up to see if the bird feeder is safe, and then while they enjoy eating from it.

My kids can sit and watch the bird feeder for quite awhile, especially when there are birds near it. It gives me a few minutes to sit and relax and watch the birds as well.

Building the bird feeder is pretty straightforward, and it will leave a bit of time for your kids to enjoy and watch the birds afterwards.