http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-log-bird-feeder.html
Make Your Own Log Bird Feeder
Adapted from Salvage Style for Outdoor Living, by Moira and Nicholas Hankinson (Rodale Press, 2001).
Everyone welcomes birds and wildlife into their gardens. Kitchen scraps, wild bird seed, a hanging coconut, and string bags full of peanuts all provide vital food for birds (and the occasional squirrel). Large numbers of the wild bird population die over the winter, and garden birds can come to depend on the food put out for them. If you care for wildlife, it’s a good idea to provide clean food and fresh water year-round. A regular supply of food can mean survival, particularly to fledgling birds in spring.
With no shortage of tree branches, we (the authors) decided to use them to construct a simple hanging bird feeder that would attract a cross-section of the smaller species but thwart the plundering of gray squirrels and the larger crows and magpies that otherwise steal the food. Here are four easy steps for making your own!
EQUIPMENT
Electric drill and 1¼-inch hole cutter bit
1-inch wood chisel
MATERIALS
Wooden log
Empty metal tea light candle holders
Three 1½-inch galvanized screw eyes
Lightweight chain
Three small key rings or snap hooks
Large key ring or snap hook
Melted fat
Chopped peanuts or bird seed
METHOD
An old, lightweight log was selected for this project to make a feeder that would be large enough to hold a reasonable quantity of bird food but light enough to hang from a slender branch, which would discourage visits from larger birds.
1. Place the log on a flat surface and, using the electric drill and hole cutter bit, drill several recesses in the top surface of the log to a depth of approximately 1½ inches.
2. Using the chisel, remove the cores of cut wood from the drilled recesses and scrape the bases level.
3. Screw the three galvanized screw eyes into the ends of the log to provide secure anchorage points for the hanging chain. Cut the lightweight chain (salvaged, if possible) into three equal lengths. Join one end of each piece of chain to each of the screw eyes using a small key ring or snap hook, and then join the remaining ends of the chain together with the large key ring or snap hook.
4. Place an empty tea light candle holder into each drilled hole in the top surface of the log and fill them with a mixture of melted fat and chopped peanuts or bird seed. Let the fat cool. Hang the bird feeder from an outer branch of a tree for the wild birds to discover and enjoy. Keep a few empty tea lights filled with the fat and seed mixture, and when the first containers are empty, replace them.
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16 comments
add your comment »This sounds nice! I like making things with my kids out of natural resources...this will be a tuffy at first but hopefully we'll get this one made! thanks for the idea!
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Family project! Family project !Thanks for the idea.
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Hello:) I love to do Crafts and I have a bird,his name is TAILO! Thanks for this.
Much Love,
black Dalia:)
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Ojala todos Hicieran lugares de paso para las aves, donde pudieran alimentarse.....
pero las personas prefieren encerrarlos en jaulas como si fueran un adorno mas.
Realmente es triste!!!
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Thanks Nick for mentioning all the killing that cats do. Cats should have to be kept indoors or on a leash just like dogs. We live in a 3rd floor apt and I keep food & water on the balcony for the outside birds. They are safe up here. And they let me know if they need food or water! LOL.
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Dave,
bread is very bad for birds! (Many people don't know that.)
But I commend your willingness to do something for them. Just remember: they eat practically ANYTHING (except vegetables and beans), so if you have leftover potatoes, rice, cheese and such, give it to them. They also love corn meal. (And it's cheaper than bread!)
Also, if you have rotting apples, offer them to blackbirds. They LOVE them!
In the winter, one of the best things you can do for birds is to offer them some BUTTER. They love it - and it keeps them warm.
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Diana,
I LOVE those tiny blue tits, too. ;)
They are ADORABLE - and even smaller than they look on pictures. A tiny, miniature one used to visit my balcony. Once, I photographed it while it was sitting on a string, by a blue peg. The peg was WAY bigger than the birdy!;)
But I must say I am partial to sparrows. They are selfish, aggressive, jealous, cunning, loud - and totally hilarious... :) I love them.
And I was shocked recently to learn that between 1994 and 2000, London, for example, lost THREE QUARTERS of its sparrow population.
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just drill big holes sloped down a bit and just smoosh the bird mix into them. i've used peanut butter and seeds, sticky enough to stay put in the log. i'm a simplist...
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That seems very complicated to me, & I got no drill. Here in Germany you can always buy those ready-made rings for blue tits (they're really called that, a European small songbird which is ADORABLE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blue-Tit.jpg) & the like. It's cardboard rings with a mixture of fat & seeds on the inside, leaving a round opening in the middle just large enough for those small birds. They can be hung from branches or the balcony.
I also put bowls with seeds on the window sills, & the blackbirds crap on the window sill ;D ...but I just remove it & don't mind.
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Raw sunflower seeds would be good to add. This is a great idea, thanks.
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