How to Make a Homemade Bird Feeder

Every winter we like to find ways to feed the birds who live in our neighbourhood. In the past we have made garlands of treats and we have turned dried gourds into bird feeders. This year I had a pile of little pumpkins left over from Thanksgiving and thought they would make perfect homemade bird feeders. After all it can be very difficult for small birds to find food when the ground is frozen and the trees are bare.

Homemade Bird Feeder

First, we sliced our gourds in half…revealing the seeds inside.

We hollowed out the pumpkins with a spoon. My daughter did all the cleaning.

Once the pumpkins were cleaned we carefully poked long wooden skewers into the pumpkin. We typically use these skewers for fruit kabobs, but we thought they would make perfect little perches for birds. We used 2 skewers and crossed them through the pumpkin.

We then tied kitchen twine to the skewers. Crossing the twine from one side to the opposite side. We made sure to keep the twine long enough that the feeder could hang on a branch and a bird could fit on the feeder.

Once the feeders were built we filled them up with bird seed. Be sure to use bird seed that is appropriate for birds that live in your area. Using bird see for indoor birds will not help outdoor birds. Different birds have different beaks and different dietary needs and wants.

Finally, we went outside and hung up our feeders. We chose two locations, one was hung in our pine tree and the other was hung in our crab apple tree.

Funnily enough, after about a week I suggested that the girls go out and fill up the feeders. To their surprise the feeders were GONE! After a little hunting, they found the feeders had been carried from our front yard to the back yard. Clearly a squirrel had thought that the pumpkin was pretty tasty. We found the feeder on TOP of our FENCE! With little nibbles in it. To be honest, we are perfectly fine with that. As long as we are feeding the animals in our neighbourhood we are fine with that. In fact, we have a couple more pumpkins and we will be making more feeders for the birds and the squirrels.