How to Make an Economical Bird-Feeder

A friend of our’s recently gave us a great gift – a bird-feeder. This particular bird-feeder came with food too. Although I am not an avid bird-watcher, inevitably we do find ourselves entertained by watching these feathered friends as they frequent our oak tree at the front of our house. We have had woodpeckers, chickadees, nut-hatches, squirrels, and in the warmer months, chipmunks, and a variety of other birds using this feeder. It is particularly nice to see the winter activity at this spot.

The bird-feeder can be made very easily from a scrap piece of firewood or large fallen branch from a nearby tree.  Our feeder is made from a piece of red pine, split so that it’s dimensions are about 20 inches tall with about 4 or 5 inches on each of the two split edges. The bark should remain on the third side as this gives the birds or chipmunks better grip for feeding. On the bark side, using a saw (preferably a chain-saw) cut a few slots into the wood (perhaps 0.5 to one inch deep at maximum), leaving 5 or 6 inches between slots so that more than one may feed at a time. These slots will hold the peanut butter that will be loaded by knife or spoon. An alternate method to cutting the slots would be the drilling of several shallow holes into the wood to act as receptacles. Our feeder also has a small stub of a branch available for birds to perch on while eating. Drill a small hole (large enough for wire, rope or string) near the top so that the feeder may be hung from a tree branch close to but not too close to your favourite viewing position (our feeder is about 8 feet from our window). We buy the most inexpensive chunky peanut butter we can and usually load the feeder every day or two.

If birds do not feed at the feeder immediately, don’t worry. They haven’t found it yet. After one week, we had many little friends visiting us every day. They continue to visit us even though some of our neighbours have much fancier feeders and higher costs. If we find that the feeder falls apart after many years, it will be cheap and simple to replace it without visiting a store at all.

Try it. You will like the natural and economical addition to your environment and the birds will love it.