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The calendar may say its the middle of April, but as I type this snow is falling from the sky. I’m not sure why winter is insisting on hanging on so long this year. We are all ready for blue skies and warmer weather. To encourage more birds to visit our yard this spring Alan and me, well, mostly Alan, put together a new bird feeder for the yard. This was inspired by The Garden Roof Coop, she has a lot of great bird feeder tutorials. Here is a fun bird feeder DIY craft that takes just a few items and costs around $10 to make.

BIRD FEEDER DIY

Supplies Needed:
2-6″ ceramic saucers
1/8″ Ferrule & Stop Set
3/32″ vinyl coated wire rope – 2 feet
Hinged gutter guard, cut to fit
3-4 zip ties

Tools Needed:
Drill or Drill Press
Wire cutters or heavy tin snips
Hammer & heavy center punch or chisel

First, you’ll want to drill a 1/8″ hole in the center of each saucer. You can do this with a drill or drill press. Just make sure you drill slowly so you don’t crack the saucer.

Next, cut a piece of gutter guard to fit inside the saucers. Really any type of mesh material will work. Dig around in your shed or garage and see if you have anything you can use. That’s the reason we used the gutter guard. We had a piece left over from another project.

Create a tube with the mesh and secure together with zip ties. This can be tricky because the gutter guard mesh is tough to manipulate, but it can be done. Of course, if you have a more flexible mesh material it will be a lot easier to create a tube.

Next, you’ll need to create a loop with the vinyl coated wire and secure with a ferrule. Use a hammer and chisel or center punch to pinch the ferrule to the wire.

Put the feeder together by feeding the wire through the center. Then, carefully, crimp the bottom of the wire the same way you crimped the top loop.

The top of the feeder will slide up and down the wire allowing you to easily fill and clean the feeder. Fill with bird seed, we used colorful songbird wild bird food and then hang in a nearby tree for the birds to enjoy.