A dirt-cheap bird feeder ANYONE can make

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#Do It Yourself#birds#outdoor living

Product image via Tour de Fork.
Product image via Tour de Fork.
I came across this product, made by Tour de Fork, as an option intended to enable the use of leftover food. In this case, the orange peels are a free air freshener.

But I thought – what a great bird feeder idea! I’m sure there are plans like this out there, but I’m new to the Caring About Having Birds in My Yard scene, so I’ve only been paying attention to such things for 6 months. I have no idea what the product pictured retails for — Tour de Fork is an Italian company and everything on their site is in Italian — but no worries. This would be dirt-cheap and stupid-easy to make. You ready?

  1. Find a wire coat hanger. I don’t have any — thanks, husband — so I’ll need to either score just one or buy a small pack.
  2. Straighten out your hanger.
  3. Do your best to make your hanger a pleasing zig-zag. You might even make it into a shape. Go wild! Impress your birds.
  4. Use a set of pliers to make a small loop at one end. You’ll either loop this around a branch or gutter lip, or use a little string to help out.

Cut an apple, apply apple slices to your zig-zigged wire, and find a hanging spot. BAM! You Made a Thing today, and your neighborhood birds will be happy.

About the Author: Cat Rocketship

I was the Managing Editor of Offbeat Home for a year and a half. I have a rich Internet life and also a pretty good real life. Hobbies include D&D, Twitter, and working on making our household more self-reliant. I also draw things.

Comments on A dirt-cheap bird feeder ANYONE can make

  1. Um…is this really designed as an air freshener? ‘Cause I have some frozen lemon rinds (leftover from delicious lemon rum drinks) that would be great for this, I think.

  2. There would probably be ways to do this with seed cakes too. Especially if you anchored something like wood or old container lids to the wire and spread suet and seeds on it to keep it stuck.

  6. I’d recommend maybe running the wire through some dish soap, or a dishwasher before making this lovely creation….wouldn’t want any birds sick (and I know I’m really a nut for thinking of something like this but as a bird lover I couldn’t live with myself if I found a dead tweeter on my porch…)

  7. Such a simple idea, and yet so workable! Even if you don’t have a wire coat hanger, any thick wire would work. Even though people are discouraged from feeding wild birds in Australia, I may have to sneak this idea in when I move over there in four months 😉

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