A bird feeder can be made from any improvised materials with your own hands. Even those that you were going to throw in a landfill will do. In our article, the most popular and original photos are selected.
Content:
- We organize free fast food for feathered friends
- Lure a jay
- Craft in the style of a log house
- The idea of a simple design for loading feed
- From simple to complex
- Coloring
- Use natural materials
- Japanese style
- Unusual models
- Model - birdhouse
- With feed compartments and dispensers
- Wine bottle dispenser model
- Wall-mounted bird dining room
- The use of metal meshes
- Models in which the feed is suspended
- Plywood is the right material
- Suction cups
- pumpkin houses
- Ceramics
- Wooden sets for children's creativity
- What can and cannot be fed to birds

We organize free fast food for feathered friends

In winter, feeders are very relevant for our feathered friends.
A small house with food will help the pichugs survive the harsh winter. After all, as you know, winter is terrible for birds with hunger, and not with frost.If the bird is full, it will not be cold under a reliable down and feather cover.
Used slats, plywood sheets, juice bags, old ceiling lamps, headlights will do. A beautifully made feeder will not only help the birds survive hard times, but also decorate a garden, square or park. If you regularly load provisions into the miniature dining room, then it will become a favorite place for feathered friends throughout the year.
Our article presents the best materials and know-how, popular models and original author's solutions that do not require you to have special skills and complex drawings.
- Without the touching fuss and chirping of birds, the world around us would not be complete. Feathered friends bring harmony and poetry into our lives.
- Even the smallest, unpretentious public garden comes to life from their melodious singing, the colorful color pleases, even gray little sparrows enliven the picture of a gloomy winter landscape with their groovy disposition.
- By taming a flock to the soup kitchen, you will be able to watch their hectic life full of funny adventures, romance and heartbreaking dramas.
- Here a bunch of viburnum blushes, seeing it, waxwings flock to the feast. So why not pick a few brushes of mountain ash or viburnum and hang it from the feeder in front of your window. Here it will be a feast for the eyes - to watch how they feast on the treasured fruits.
- Whistling merrily, the titmouse will rush in, sit on the branches and begin to spin, looking for something to profit from. And here is the nuthatch, running down the trunk on tiny legs, he is also waiting for free fast food from you.
- A spotted woodpecker in a smart red cap looks busily for something to eat. Attach a couple of pine cones to the holder for it.
- Do not spare bread crumbs and grains for feathered singers.

Lure a jay
Here, for example, jay. You can take a good look at it, admire it, study its habits only in winter, in summer you can’t find it during the day with fire, it will fly away into the thicket and does not show up. A jay will definitely fly to your feeder in winter frosts, use this moment to observe its habits. By the way, she loves hazelnuts very much.

In winter, rare birds flock to human habitation
And don't think you're doing a great service. We do not provide the birds with a service, but they do us. Innumerable hordes of insect pests damage crops in gardens and in the field.
And if not for our good helpers - birds, there would be little left of gardens, forests and fields. Caterpillars, moths, larvae, beetles constantly spoil and eat foliage, buds, sharpen the bark. Busy starlings and rooks pick up larvae after plowing the land. Thank these hard workers in difficult times for them.

Craft in the style of a log house
More recently, the construction of feeders was one of the most exciting activities for children. For many, these lines will resonate with a pleasant childhood memory:
“We made a feeder,
We opened a canteen.
Sparrow, bullfinch neighbor,
You will have lunch in the winter.

A house made of birch bark will attract feathered friends with its naturalness
Unfortunately, now children are spending more and more time with virtual technologies and gadgets. It so happened that computer games have replaced communication with wildlife. Let's not let this wonderful activity sink into oblivion.
- There are many ideas for creating free bird canteens. They vary in shape, color, material and assembly complexity.
- For those birds that prefer nesting in hollow trees, a nest box feeder is suitable. In fact, this is an ordinary nest box with an opening lid, which has a couple of entrances. This feeder is fixed at a height of 2 - 3 m from the ground.
- The main point in the manufacture of feeders is to provide for loading. And it happens like this, they will install a feeder, pour food into it. But then a week passes, another, no one pours food, the bird houses are empty.
- Do not forget to load new portions of food into the bird canteens.

The idea of a simple design for loading feed
Since climbing a slippery tree in winter to add food is not very pleasant and unsafe, we offer you a simple mechanism for loading food into the feeder in winter:
- A through hole is drilled at the end of a long stick-holder, into which an axis is inserted, ending with a bunker spoon.
- A plumb line and a lever with a loop extending from it at a right angle are soldered to the axis of the spoon. A control cord is tied to the loop (a plumb line is needed so that the bunker spoon is always in a horizontal position).
The mechanism of action of the structure is as follows:
- Lowering the stick horizontally, we pour food into the spoon.
- After that, we raise the stick vertically.
- The plumb line fixed on the axis of the spoon is directed downwards all the time, so the food does not spill out.
- Bringing the device to the feeder, you need to slightly pull the cord. At the same time, the spoon fixed on the axis will turn, and the feed will slowly pour into the feeder. Together with the spoon, the plumb line will also deviate.
- When the right amount of food is filled, you just need to lower the cord, and the plumb bob will return the spoon to its original position.

From simple to complex

Birds accustomed to nesting in hollows will choose nest houses
- First of all, let's talk about the simplest winter feeders.
- The model is represented by an ordinary board with sides, the supports are 4 wooden bars nailed to the corners of the sides.
- A pediment in the form of a triangle, nailed to wooden blocks. The roof is made of two planks.
- You can work on the pediment of the feeder by applying imagination and skill.
- The feeders look decorative with an arched cut, as well as with a pediment in the form of divergent rays.
- The supports do not have to be placed at an angle of 90 °; they can be packed not at the corners of the bottom, but closer to the center.
- A carved roof will help decorate the feeder. If you have a wood lathe, then this is not a problem.
- You can experiment, make a stylized tile from roofing material. To do this, use scissors and your own ingenuity.

Coloring
- Do not forget that birds are, first of all, living creatures, if you want them to fly to your feeder without alertness and fear, do not paint the craft with very bright colors.
- The best is the natural color of the wood. Natural colors will not cause fear among pichugas and a small house made by your own hands will become a familiar place for them.

Use natural materials
Feeding troughs made of bark-covered wood will harmoniously fit into the landscape of a square garden or park. Suitable birch bars, saw cut branches of linden, hazel. The arrival of thin twigs around the perimeter of the bird house.
So it will be more convenient for the birds to sit, and they will not want to leave this cozy place for a long time.

The naturalness of crafts will attract birds
You can disguise the roof as natural material, sheathe it with knots, straw, reeds. Feathered friends will appreciate this naturalness.

You can disguise the roof as a natural material

Japanese style
Beautiful and memorable dining room for feathered friends in Japanese style. To make the feeder look like a Japanese pagoda, lift the corners of the roof up, use metal brackets for this.

Japanese wooden lantern

Unusual models

two tier model
- It is not at all necessary to make four racks, you can get by with two supports. One vertical plank on both sides of the bottom of the bird house.
- Such feeders can be made in several floors, just extend the side boards and nail new bottoms to them.
- Improvise, come up with your own solutions. It is possible that they will be more beautiful and comfortable.
- Supports can be wide, low or vice versa narrow high size.
A small selection of fresh original ideas:

Model - birdhouse
A birdhouse feeder will not only give the birds the opportunity to eat food, but also provide them with a secluded shelter. The walls and high sides will create reliable protection from the wind in the harsh winter cold, the birds in such a mini house will be very comfortable. Realize your ideas, decorate, imitating household items.
Try to make sure that the feeder is not only functional, but also aesthetic.
With feed compartments and dispensers

Model made of wood and plexiglass
- You can load a lot of food into such a feeder at once and leave for one or two weeks, your pets will have enough food for a long time.
- On the inner walls, you need to cut vertical grooves and insert Plexiglas or plastic plates.
- Do not lower the plates to the very bottom, leave a narrow gap through which the grains will wake up. After eating a portion of feed, new grain will fall out through the gap. Along the edge of the feeder, you can fill small pegs, on which it is convenient to string pieces of fruit or bacon, so beloved by titmouse.
- Here is a diagram of a bird house with a dosing device.
- The roof has hinges, it opens like a door. In your models, you can place dosing dividers on the four sides of the feeder.
- The feed compartment is located on both sides of the feeder. In the middle, where the bird is located, the grains enter through a slot cut from the bottom on both sides of the grain compartments.

With bottle dispenser
- As a dosing device, you can use a regular plastic bottle.
- Cut it off and hang it in the middle of the feeder, leaving a gap of 1 cm from the bottom of the house.
- As a result, there will be a gap between the edges of the plastic bottle and the bottom, through which the food will pour on the bottom of the feeder.
- Provide a hinged or removable cover at the top.
Wine bottle dispenser model
If you do not have time to make a capital bird house, but really want to create something with your own hands - make a mounting system in which you can place a bottle in a standing position, turn it upside down.

Useful and at the same time beautiful element of decor
Vintage bottles of wine, champagne look beautiful. You can fix glass bottles on a wire or rope, the bottles have bends that will not allow it to slip out of the wire or rope grip.
Wall-mounted bird dining room
In gardens and parks there are often many tall plants, it is not always possible to reach branches or knots.

Build a house that can be mounted on a trunk
You can invent your own author's fixtures for wall mounting, logs.
The use of metal meshes
An interesting solution is to use metal nets with such a mesh size that the bird's beak can get food. Metal mesh can be nailed or fixed with staples.

Dining room in the form of a mesh pipe
On the side, the mesh is stuffed on wooden slats. In addition, the mesh is twisted around the socket in the bottom. This small house with all the amenities for the birds left for the winter in our area.
Do not spare your time and effort, and your feathered friends will thank you with a cheerful chirp.
- You can also make a feeder in the form of a mesh pipe. The bottom is a regular lid from a can, you can fix the pipe with wire.
- We drill holes in the bottom of the lid, thread the rope, and the hanging mount for the feeder is ready.
You can hang it on a carnation driven into a pole, a branch, or anywhere. Nets can be used as a box, which is stuffed along the frame at the end of the feeder. A hook can be attached to the bottom in order to hang pieces of lard and other goodies for feathered pets on it.
Models in which the feed is suspended

Make feed balls from slices of bread, bacon, seeds, hang them under the roof of the bird house.
Plywood is the right material

plywood house
- An exciting activity for you and your children will be assembling a feeder from plywood parts.
- This activity is like putting together puzzles.
- You can come up with an original author's design using figured sawing with a jigsaw. First you need to prepare a cardboard template, adjust the details, then transfer to plywood.
- Give the finished feeder to your children so that they color it, it will become a real work of art for you.
Suction cups
This is a practical option in which ordinary suction cups are used as fasteners. Such a craft can be hung on a window pane, and, hiding behind a curtain, watch the birds fussing outside the window. You can make such a feeder from a plastic container, suction cups can be taken from soap dishes or towels.
As you can see, absolutely any materials can be involved in the production of feeders.
pumpkin houses
Even from a pumpkin you can make an original house for birds, by the way, they are very fond of such feeders, because a pumpkin is a natural material.Birds will gladly visit them fearlessly in winter.

Pumpkin gourd is attractive to birds for its naturalness
Ceramics
Aerobatics - a house made of ceramics.
In principle, everything that is at hand can be used as a device for feeding birds. - cans, plates, saucers, egg containers, juice boxes, milk boxes, plastic bottles.
Wooden sets for children's creativity

Creativity set
- In retail chains, you can purchase special kits for the creativity of your baby. With their help, the child will create their own small bird dining room.
- Wood or plywood blanks are assembled using simple tools - screwdrivers and screws, which are included in the package.
- Such kits always include instructions describing all the assembly steps. The child will be able to paint his little masterpiece, the kit includes paints that can be mixed with each other, getting a variety of color shades.
- The paints included in the kit are waterproof. Your feeder can also be used in rainy weather.
What can and cannot be fed to birds
Millet and bran
- As for millet and wheat bran, they are very low in calories.
- These products lack fats and proteins, fiber prevails, from which in winter there is no benefit for birds, but only harm.
- Titmouse, sparrows and other handsome feathered birds will not get enough of such food.
VIDEO: Do-it-yourself bunker bird feeder in 10 minutes
How to make a bird feeder with your own hands? 19 original ideas (180 Photos & Videos) + Reviews