How to Build a Bird Feeder

Age Range: 5 and up

In this how-to video, parents and kids learn how to build a bird feeder together.

Steps:

1. Cut off the top and bottom of a 1-liter soda bottle. Then drill four holes at the bottom—this is where the birdseed will come out out.

2. Use a jigsaw to cut out two wood circles that fit like plugs into the plastic tube. Download templates for these circles and the other wood parts.

3. Make the bottom and the top by gluing and nailing the circles to wood squares. Put dowels in the bottom piece to make perches that the birds can sit on as they eat.

4. Then drill a hole through the bottom and string a wire through it. Put a little crimp on the end of the wire so it can’t come out. Then cover the hole with another wood square.

5. Use epoxy to glue the top inside a copper newel cap.

6. Drill a hole through the cap. Then fit the plastic tube over the bottom, run the wire through the tube and out the hole in the cap. That’s your bird feeder.

7. To fill it up, just take off the cap and pour in the seed. Then hang the bird feeder from a hook screwed into a strong branch and watch the birds come for lunch!

Tell us about your own family projects.