Monday, September 10, 2012

Manic Mondays: Soda Bottle Bird Feeder

I have been wanting to make a bird feeder or bird house with my daughter for quite some time now. Since she drinks Soy Milk, I thought those rectangular cartons would be perfect. Come to find out, my wonderful husband chucked the carton that I was waiting and hoping to use in the trash (shame on him). So that kind of put a stop to that idea. Then I saw a 2 liter bottle of soda and decided to take revenge (he was almost done with it anyway!). And come to find out, the plastic bottle works great as a feeder! This isn't no fancy bird motel with a built in automatic timer or anything but we don't really need all that and I'm sure the birds really don't care what the heck it looks like.

Here is what you'll need:


1 or 2 liter plastic bottle
2 wooden spoons
small eye screw
some kind of rope or twine for hanging
knife or scissors 
bird seed

For another reference on this project, check out Disney Family Fun.

Start by drawing a half inch circle or asterisk on one side of the bottle, 4-6 inches from the bottom. Lengths will vary depending on if you have a 1 or 2 liter bottle. Find what is right for you (I did 6in).
  Turn the bottle 90 degrees and draw another asterisk 2-3 inches from the bottom. Then draw a one inch wide circle opposite each asterisk.
Use a knife or scissors to cut out holes for each end of the spoon. Put the wooden spoon (end first) through the holes. The bigger hole is for the wide part of the spoon the smaller hole is for the handle of the spoon. Does that make sense??
Take the eye screw and screw it into the middle part of the bottle cap. Then run your rope or twine through the eye part for hanging. 
Decorate how ever you want. We decided to put Dora and Diego stickers on ours.

And the fun part....Filling up the bottle with birdseed. We found that if you position the feeder like the picture above, it's easier to fill up without seed falling out. You can see our wonderful mess. Oh, and it might be easier if you have a funnel..We didn't have one, so I made one out of paper.
And this is where we clean the mess......

Put the cap back on the top of the bottle...Look mom! A bird feeder!!!
And finally....Hang up your feeder for all the world to see!! And of course, to feed the birds. 

I will update with pictures of it actually being used. Hope they like it, and you guys too!! Happy Monday!!


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