A bad witch's blog: Earth Day Craft: Turn a Bottle into a Bird Feeder

Monday 22 April 2024

Earth Day Craft: Turn a Bottle into a Bird Feeder

Today is Earth Day, and the focus this year is on trying to reduce single-use plastic. Obviously it's best to avoid buying plastic things in the first place, but most of us still sometimes do. The video at the top shows how to turn a plastic bottle into a bird feeder, created by the Natural History Museum. I'm going to have a go at crafting one myself today from the empty squash bottle you can see in the photo on right.

Here are instructions in writing:

Materials neded

Plastic bottle (with cap)
A stick (or two)
A pin
Scissors
String

Making the bird feeder

Clean the bottle and unscrew the cap off.
Punch several small holes in the bottle's bottom with the pin.
Punch two level pin-holes on opposite sides of the bottle, near the base, then widen these slightly with scissors.
Push a stick through the holes, leaving enough poking out for birds to perch on.
Cut small holes a little way above the perches for the birds to reach the seed.
If the bottle is big enough you can make another set of perches and holes at right angles to the first.
Punch two pin-holes on opposite sides of the bottle's neck and thread string through these to hang it from.
Fill the bottle with a bird food and screw the cap back on.
Hang the feeder outdoors in a sheltered place.

If you can't find a new use for any plastic bottles, please recycle them when you've finished with them.

EDIT: The picture at the bottom, next to this, shows the bottle bird-feeder I made on Earth Day after writing the original post.