![]() The next day, cut up various fruits (apples, oranges and blueberries work well) With a needle and thread, pierce through your fruit chunks and popcorn in an alternating pattern until you have a good length of garland. Pop some popcorn the night before and leave it out so it gets a bit stale since it’s easier to thread this way. Here are some of my favorite DIY bird feeders you can make today:įruit string garlands: This is a simple bird feeder. Thanks to decades of experience, I’ve made my fair share of zero waste bird feeders for free, with repurposed materials you probably have in your house right now. So you want to know how to build a bird feeder. A bird feeder can be made of many different things - read on for some of my favorite DIY bird feeder ideas! What is a bird feeder?Ī bird feeder is some type of container hung from a high up spot and filled with bird food that allows birds to land and eat safely. I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t enjoy the warbling, chirping, sing-songing symphony of bird song in the summertime. What better way to teach your children the importance of wildlife than to observe it in your own backyard, as I did as a child with my grandfather. The more trees and shelter your can provide throughout the land, the better for all your neighborhood birds (and other wildlife!) Education ConservationĬreating an environment that is inviting and safe for backyard birds offers us the chance to give back through conservation of these important species. This is also why it is so important not to completely clear-cut your dead garden for the fall and winter - leave it up as a vital food source for the local wildlife and cut back in the spring before new growth forms instead. Aside from the beloved garden worm, they also eat flies, ants, moths, aphids and ticks…and if you’re luckier than me, they’ll even help with your cabbage moth problem by eating the larvae before they have a chance to totally decimate your kale crop (ask me how I know) Weed controlīirds eat seeds, including weed seeds! Birds can help manage invasive species that you do not want growing on the land with their snacking. Pest controlīirds eat bugs - the largest ones eat rodents too. For example, the reason you almost exclusively find poison ivy along fences and underneath trees is because birds eat the berries, digest them and then “plant” them while sitting on branches or fence posts. Why have a bird feeder? Here’s some of the benefits of backyard birds in your yard: Pollinationīackyard birds do much of the same work as the insect pollinators we are all familiar with when it comes to spreading seed and supporting plant growth - both good and bad. And of course, I learned that feeding birds is just plain fun. ![]() ![]() I learned from him that all wildlife has value, no matter how small. Could he have known that these moments he spent with me and the birds, carving whistles from fallen horse chestnuts, would become a part of my own origin story as a naturalist? Far from an expert though I might be, he showed me what it meant to be a student of nature long before I grew my own garden or made my own companions in the rabbits and toads that keep me company as I sow, weed and water. Even through the rose colored glasses of childhood, I know deep in my bones that he understood something of nature that many people do not. To be honest, looking back I’m still fairly certain that it was some sort of magic. He could merely step out into his yard and with a few quick whistles summon all varieties of backyard birds to his palm or his shirt pocket, where they would enter into a conversation of chirps and intense eye contact that fascinated me. You see, he was one of those people who seemed to be friends with the birds in a way not many of us are. Like many young people, I thought my grandpa might have some kind of magic. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you.
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