How to Make a Recycled Bird Feeder

This activity is taken from “Let’s Go Live with Maddie & Greg”, a live family science show on YouTube!

View the full episode this activity is taken from on YouTube

“We love this activity because we’re helping birds access food all year round AND we’re up-cycling our plastic bottle before it goes into the recycling!”

Materials you could use

A used, empty plastic bottle and lid (wash it out first and leave to dry)

A wooden spoon/stick/pencil

String

Bird Seed

Scissors

Funnel

Method

Safety first!

Always be careful using scissors. Be mindful of sharp edges when cutting plastic.

This activity is all about up-cycling plastic to make a bird feeder for the garden!

1.. Take your plastic bottle and make 2 small holes close to the bottom on either side of the bottle. They need to be in line with each other.

2. Squash the bottle in half and then cut another hole 2/3cm above one of the holes you have already made. This can be done with 2 diagonal cuts to create a diamond shape.

3. Push the wooden spoon through the two holes near the bottom of the bottle, but make sure the spoon end is the same side as the diamond hole you cut in the previous step.

4. Using the funnel, pour your bird seed into the bottle – make sure it goes above the level where you cut your diamond hole.

5. Screw the top on your bottle.

6. Tie some string around the top of the bottle.

7. Tie the other end of the string around a branch (or something high enough up) so it hangs in a location where the birds will feel safe.

Plastic is an amazing material. It is hardwearing, and strong and long lasting, so if you wanted to make a table or chair it would be extremely useful. It is also malleable, so can be manipulated into pretty much any shape you wish! However, it lasts for a long time, which is why we are now encouraged to not use plastic for items that are single use, such as a bottle that you drink from and then throw away. These items can end up in landfill and could be there for hundreds, if not thousands of years before it breaks down. It is great to put these items in recycling, so that they can be used again, or even upcycle it to make something else!

The idea of our upcycled bottle bird feeder is that a bird can fly up to the feeder, land on the spoon and peck at the seed through the diamond hole you created! Just like humans, birds need a variety of food in their diet, so purchasing a wild bird seed for your feeder will give them that. Some birds like mealworms, but others like peanuts too! If you are going to feed peanuts, you need to make sure they are of the variety that are specifically for birds. Finally, you need to make sure that the bird feeder goes in a location where we can see and enjoy the birds, but also where it is safe so keep it away from fences where cats or wild animals may be able to get to it.