How to make a bird feeder from a plastic bottle: ideas

Birds, who have taken a liking to the urban environment, experience great difficulties in winter: frosts are fierce, a snowy sheet wraps the ground. Not only is it cold and bad weather, there is also an acute shortage of food, which can be fatal for the feathered beauties.But we can help our friends get through difficult times. To do this, you can make very little effort and makea plastic bottle feeder for birds, and regularly fill it with food.

Advantages of making a plastic bottle feeder

Often, the refectory for birds is made of wood, making a wooden structure is more laborious and requires at least minimal skills in working with wood. And if we consider plastic bottles as a feeder, then working with them is much easier.In addition, there are a number of other undeniable advantages:

• Convenience for birds - with the correct manufacture of the structure, the birds can comfortably fly to the meal regularly, and the feeder will protect the food from snow and rain.
• Benefit - the material is very cheap, regardless of whether you buy the container separately or with a drink. But many people do not even need to buy it, since such a container is probably already stored at home.
• Convenience - plastic bottles are very easy to work with, for example, plastic can be easily cut, holes can be made in it.
• Material stability - the container is able to withstand frost, heat, bad weather, it is also not afraid of temperature changes.
• Availability - it will not be difficult to find the material, perhaps there are already several suitable containers in your house.

What else is needed: what materials andtools

It's great if you decide to do a good deed. But the process requires certain materials and tools. Here's what you need to prepare before making the structure:

• plastic bottles: 1.5 liter or 5 liter. If you plan to make several feeders, then there should be several bottles;
• scissors;
• awl;
• insulating tape;
• sharp knife;
• sticks made of wood;
• ruler;
• wire or strong rope.

Plastic Bottle Feeder Instructions: Tips, Diagrams, and Step-by-Step Guides

The design is easy and simple, but in order for the lesson to be crowned with success, you need to know some features, as well as the manufacturing scheme.

From a five liter (5) bottle

A 5-liter bottle is a very suitable and convenient material for making food for birds. Due to its volume, it will be able to accommodate more birds than its "slender" 1.5-liter relative. From a container of this volume, you can make a wonderful vertical and horizontal feeder.

Horizontal feeder

The main advantage of the horizontal arrangement of the container is that several birds can start a meal at once, but with the vertical arrangement of the bottle, they will be constrained by a small area.

Photo of a practical 5 liter bottle feeder:

You can make a bird feeder from a plastic 5-liter container as follows:

• For convenience, place the container on its side, that is, place it on the table in a horizontal position.
• From 2 sides, which are located opposite, draw the outline of future rectangular windows, they should be large enough. The outline can be drawn with a marker.
• Now you need to carefully make cuts along the outlined contour, and this must be done with a sharp knife or scissors. In order to comfortably wield them, you need to make holes with a sharp awl and start cutting with scissors from this place.

Advice! A canopy can be made on the bottle, which will additionally protect the bird food from bad weather and precipitation. To do this, make a cutout on the bottom and sides, and bend the plastic visor upward with pliers.

• Bottle cutouts have sharp edges. To protect yourself from them, simply cover them with duct tape.
• An important element of any feeder is the perches, on which the birds can sit, hiding from the bad weather, or enjoy food with comfort. To do this, make 2 small holes on both sides at the level of the lower border of the window and insert a not very thick wooden stick into them.
• To fix the structure on the street, it is necessary to fasten it with a wire or strong rope. To do this, make 2 holes on the bottom of the container, they should be opposite the neck. Then pass the wire or rope through the holes in the bottom, and also tie the rope or wire tightly around the neck. This way you can fix the structure to a tree or something else.

Video: how to make a bird feeder from a plastic 5-liter bottle with your own hands.

Vertical design

The production technology of vertical structures does not differ much from horizontal ones, but nevertheless it has some features that must be taken into account:

• Use a marker or felt-tip pen to mark the cutouts. If the bottle is square, then you can make 3 large windows on three sides, if it is round, then it is optimal to make 2 windows opposite each other.
• Make cutouts with a knife or scissors. You can be like a horizontal structure and make a canopy that will protect you from bad weather.
• Cover the cutouts with duct tape as shown in the photo below:

• To make perches, you need to make a hole with an awl just below the window and insert wooden sticks there.

• To secure the product to a tree or other object on the street, you can simply poke a hole in the lid and thread a rope through it.

Video: features of making a vertical bird feeder.

Vertical feeder with dispenser

In addition to a five liter container, you will need a 1.5 liter container. Do all the same manipulations as indicated above, only make four large windows. Then you should act within the instructions:

• It is necessary to cut the bottom of a smaller bottle so that there is a distance of about three centimeters between its neck and the bottom of a large container.
• Then put a small layer of bird food on the bottom of the large container.
• After that, you need to put a small container in an upright position with the lid unscrewed in a large container, bottom up, open the five-liter lid and pour the bird food into a half-liter.

When you close the lid of the large container, you can hang the structure outside for the delight of the birds.

Video: option for bird feeders with a dispenser.

From one and a half liter (1.5) bottle

Such a feeder, of course, is less spacious, but it can be made a little faster. You can also hang several 1.5-liter plastic bottle feeders nearby so that more birds can feed their hunger.

Standard feeder

A canteen for birds from a container of this volume is made by hand in the same way as a vertical feeder from a 5-liter container. Only one or two windows are made.

Video: how to make a standard feeder from a 1.5-liter container.

Feeder with wooden spoon

Very interesting and original design. For such a non-standard product, you will need a one and a half or two liter bottle, two wooden spoons with a long handle. Everything is done according to the following scheme:

• Mark the bottles so the cutouts are in the correct places. Since there will be 2 spoons in one container, 4 cutouts must be made (paired cutouts should be located at different heights). Cutouts should be done at a slight slope. First make a mark on one side of the container, then slightly lower on the other.
• Cutouts should be made small so that the spoons do not fall out and do not allow too much grain to spill out.
• Then insert both spoons at a slight slope: the handle will serve as a perch, and food will pour into the scoop.
• After that, you can pour the food into the neck of the container, screw on the lid and hang the product outside.

The design should look like a feeder in the photo:

Tit design with pigeon and crow protection

You can also make a clever design that will feed the tits, but will be inaccessible to the more determined and voracious pigeons and crows. Video instructions will help you make a convenient feeder from a plastic bottle with protection from pigeons and crows:

Various recommendations and tips for making

Knowing some of the features, secrets and tricks will help make the product as convenient for birds as possible, and will also bring you maximum pleasure:

• For manufacturing, you must use sharp tools, handle them with extreme care to avoid injury and damage to the skin.
• Such a container is most often transparent, so it is advisable to mark the boundaries of the entrance with a bold outline using a colored marker.
• It is important that the feeder is easily accessible for the birds, they should be able to easily fly up and consume food.

By the way! To prevent moisture from accumulating at the bottom of the container, drainage holes can be made. Just make small punctures at the bottom of the container.

• It is advisable to hang the structure at a height of about 1.5 m, due to this height, it will be difficult for cats to grab the bird.
• It is not recommended to place feeders near the house, otherwise you will have to regularly clean the house of droppings.
• It is necessary to position the feeder in such a way that there is an open area in front of it, and the birds could notice the approach of the cat in time.
• Remember that birds are wildlife, so the feeder can become a hotbed of infection. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to eliminate uneaten food every day. About once a month, you should rinse the feeder well with rubber gloves with hot water and soap, be sure to douse it with boiling water a couple of times.
• Making a bird feeder with the children would be a great idea, especially if they were given the task of making a bird feeder with their own hands in kindergarten.Surely the guys will be delighted with such an activity, just watch them carefully so that they do not get scratched or hurt.
• If you want to make a beautiful and original feeder with your own hands, then you can bring some of your own unique ideas, for example, use colored pencils as a pole. In addition, you can attach a decorative flower to the product. It would be extraordinary to draw some colorful drawing on a plastic bottle, as in this photo:

What to feed the birds or what food should be poured

It is important not only to just make and hang the feeder, but also to regularly feed the birds. It is optimal to do this once or twice a day.

You can feed the birds with these products: unsalted lard, raw unsalted seeds (pumpkin, sunflower), unsalted crushed peanuts, nuts, wheat, oats, millet, unsalted butter, pine cones.

It is forbidden to feed the following products: salted (bacon, chips, nuts, etc.), fried (that is, absolutely any fried foods, including fried seeds), spicy, spicy, sour foods, millet, fresh bread, rye bread, cookies, rich buns, you can not give spoiled cereals to birds.

Below you can explore photographs illustrating the gastronomic preferences of various birds:

You should be very careful about these rules for choosing products for feeding birds, otherwise prohibited products will cause diseases of varying severity in birds and even death.

It is also necessary to talk with children and talk about the feeding habits of birds, so that children do not accidentally give them destructive and harmful food.

Video: how to feed the birds in winter.

Thanks to such simple manipulations with plastic containers, you will help the birds survive the cold winter, and instill in children love and care for our smaller brothers. In addition, for sure all your family will be happy to watch the different birds that have flown in to feast on.