Tips for your Bird Feeder

This is a wonderful winter project to do as a family. It teaches woodworking skills, patience, and allows for lots of creativity, and the birds will love it as well as their food supply becomes limited during the winter time. 

Also, who wouldn't enjoy seeing the birds that come visit!

There are many variations of this bird feeder out there, depending on the birds in your area and your preferences. The following design calls for higher walls to avoid tipping and losing seed if squirrels were to try to get into it.

The wood pieces included in our kit come drilled in advance with screws, which means all you need is a Robertson screwdriver to put it together, but depending on how far you want to go with this project, you may also choose to use extra nails; hammer them in for added strength. You may also use wood glue in the seams and even sandpaper the edges. However, this is not necessary.

Once it's completed, you can use your creativity to paint the bird feeder with bright or basic brown colours, depending on the types of birds you want to attract. For example, blue jays are attracted to the colour blue, but some birds may get scared off by the bright feeders.

Just be mindful not to paint or spray anything inside the feeder, as it may affect the birds, and you also want to choose non-toxic if possible.

If you do choose to paint you probably want to finish your project with a weatherproofing of some sort.

Begin building the bird feeder by attaching the two side pieces to the base. Use two screws on each end.

Then, attach the roof pieces using an additional eight screws (two on each end), making sure the top pieces fit firmly together. 

Lastly, attach your lip walls with another eight screws, making sure to line up the same markings.

Run the rope through the top and place your feeder somewhere covered and away from possible predators.

That's all!

Hope you enjoyed this project. Please leave any suggestions in the comments.