Bird feeder — 120 photos and instructions for construction and the main types of bird feeders

In winter, birds have a hard time finding food for themselves. In winter and at any other time of the year, a bird feeder with your own hands will be an excellent help for feathered friends in the fight against hunger. It is not difficult to build it from improvised materials.

Summary of the article:

To perform the "bird canteen", you will not need special materials. It is important to select them so that:

The feeder was convenient for birds, it was easy to get food from it.
The lid and sides should keep the food from wind and moisture: wet grain quickly becomes covered with mold, dangerous to the life of birds.
The material for the feeder should be chosen moisture-resistant so that it does not get wet in the rain or snow.
It is important that the walls and corners are not sharp and could not injure the bird.
It is better to make a small feeder: then large birds of prey will not covet food.

It is better to hang the feeder on a tree or attach it to the wall so that the cats could not get to the birds, and to serve the "dining room", it was convenient to pour the seeds: approximately at a height of 150-160 cm.

It is desirable that the feeder always hangs in the same place: birds get used to finding their lunch, therefore, deciding to help feathered friends, constantly make sure that the container is not empty.

What can be used to make a bird feeder

A variety of ideas for feeders can be gleaned from the Internet or come up with yourself. The simplest feeder can be made from a box or a juice bag.

It is not the appearance of the "dining room" that is important to birds, but the convenience and availability of fresh food, especially in cold, frosty winter.

From juice packaging

On the opposite sides of the tetra-pack, you need to cut holes, slightly retreating from the bottom, so that the feed does not spill out of the feeder, it is not blown away by gusts of wind. Strengthen the edges of the cut-out window with adhesive tape, then the bird will not get hurt on the edges of the window.

Make a "perch": under the window, pierce a through hole with scissors, insert a rolled-up cardboard or paper.

Make holes in the upper part and pull a cord or wire to hang the feeder. If you attach it to the trunk of a tree, the wind will not sway it, the food will not crumble.

From a plastic bottle

The bottle feeder is made simply. Here are some simple designs:

Opposite each other on both sides of the 1.5-2 liter bottle, windows are cut out – round, rectangular, in the form of an arch. Seal the bottom edge with something soft so that the bird does not hurt its paws.

Make a through hole under the window and insert a stick-perch. If the hole is made rectangular, you can not cut through the upper part, but bend it – you will get a small canopy.

Feeder-hopper. Take 2 bottles of the same volume. In one, cut out the holes, as in the previous version, cut off the upper third.

At the second bottle, you need to make several holes in the neck area so that grain can pour through them. With the neck down, lower this bottle into the first container after the feed is filled and the lid is wrapped.

A large-volume feeder can be made from a 5-liter plastic bottle according to a similar principle. In a large bottle, do not cut the neck, but make large holes through which the birds will fly into the feeder.

fill a 1.5-liter bottle with grain, make several holes near the lid and place the bottle inside a large one, after turning it over.

Bird feeders and houses made of wood

A wooden feeder will last for a long time. It is not difficult to make it, you will need:

wooden bars.

A simple drawing of a bird feeder can be made independently or found on the Internet. It will not be difficult to assemble a structure consisting of a small box made of plywood and bars, two racks and a roof on them. If desired, the feeder can be "ennobled": paint in any color.

The feeder in the decoupage technique will look spectacular. Any drawing can be transferred with glue and napkins, and then varnished. Such a "dining room" for birds will not just feed the birds, but will also become an ornament of a garden or park.

Making a birdhouse

With the arrival of spring, the garden is filled with cheerful chirping. To watch the cheerful bird commotion, make a house for them. A birdhouse with your own hands can be made using ready-made patterns or by making them yourself.

For different types of birds, the sizes will differ, albeit slightly. But this will need to be taken into account when you think about who the house is intended for.

Be sure to make sure that the whiskered hunters – cats and cats could not reach the chicks in the birdhouse with their paws. To do this, they usually make an expanded roof of the birdhouse so that the cat does not reach the letka with his paw.

Another option is to make a protective belt out of tin strips or "brooms". Distances must be maintained, then the animals will not catch prey. In addition, when hanging a birdhouse, try to find a place to place it so that there are no knots or other supports nearby.

Starlings will settle in your house if it looks "window" to the south.

Unusual feeders

Original bird feeders can be made from anything. Old mugs hung on a tree with decorative chains will decorate the garden, become an element of landscape design and feed birds not only in winter, but also in summer.

The bird feeders shown in the photo are made of a variety of materials:

From a simple shoe box, you can make a feeder in two floors: connect the container itself and the inverted lid with pieces of cord at the four corners, and then hang it to a tree. If the lid is wrapped with a waterproof material and placed on top, then even during rain, the feeder will remain dry.

Cans and jars, bottles and plates – everything can become a convenient bird "dining room". Miniature "plates" for bluebirds and sparrows can be made even from... ice cream sticks, folding them in a neat "well".

Weave a feeding trough from newspaper tubes, paint, varnish. The laborious work will pay off in full: you will have a decorative hanging basket in the garden, and the birds will have a comfortable "dining room".

You can make a great house out of twigs folded into a "hut". After all, the main thing for the feeder is to have a platform where it is convenient to pour grain, and a roof that protects food from rain and snow.

If you are a creative person, you can easily figure out how to make a feeder from improvised materials, decorate it so that it looks aesthetically pleasing:

a house made of wood or plywood can be painted, varnished;
plastic and glass containers – paint, paste over, giving them a beautiful look.

How to treat feathered friends? For birds wintering in our region, it is better to use seeds of wild grasses. Oats, millet, flax and hemp seeds can be bought in pet stores, sunflower and pumpkin unroasted unsalted seeds are in every food store, if you have not prepared them since the summer.

Bread, rye and wheat are not recommended for birds – they contain excess starch, which is not digested by the body of birds.

Do not forget to add eggshells – a rich source of calcium, useful for birds as a top dressing. Then in winter you will observe the life of birds arriving for food, and in spring, perhaps, they decide to stay with you for nesting.