A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2006 Homemade Bird Feeder ... EZ construction

The construction of this bird feeder is fairly simple, I think, & it's very easy to maintain.


A basic wooden "tray" for the bottom, two kite-shaped side pieces (bottoms flat). The slits that you see going down the insides of the end pieces is where sheets of Plexiglas fit.


Here it is with the roof propped up next to it, to show you the shape of the 2 pieces that attach to the peek of a sheet metal roof. Notice the eye screws at the front of the tray, where the perch slides through. (The perch is the smaller dowel laying behind the feeder.) The larger dowel will slide into the hole in the roof attachment, on through the holes in the feeder side pieces, & back out through the roof attachment at the other end.


Here's the view from the bottom, where I attached a camper table bracket, which will fit over the top of a metal post.

Here it is, all assembled...


....and here it is, mounted & filled.
...

It doesn't need to be removed from the post to be refilled... All you do is to pull out the dowel holding the roof on, lift the roof, & dump the bird seed in!

That is so way cool, Patty!

Nice, nice job.

Thanks for sharing it with us all.

Merme

That looks really good Patty!

Can you see it easily from a window in your house?

Cool!!! I have to give this a whirl
Thnx

Oh, yes! Originally, it was right outside our dining room bay, but the larger birds made such a mess, raking through it as though sharpening their beaks, that I was forever weeding the flower beds in that area when the seed would germinate & grasses would sprout everywhere! I recently moved it to an area above a huge low-growing Juniper bush that grows over the side of a hill, where it can be seen better from the front bay, as well as from the dining bay. (Although we don't have as much of a "close up & personal" view of the birds now... but I'm not out there weeding all the time!)


Chenno, if you're going to put one together for yourself, I suggest that you modify it where the perches are, so the eye screws can be eliminated. (The dowel turns just a little each time the birds land & take off, which gradually works the dowel right out of those eye screws. I've used washers, rubber bands, twisty-ties & finally, dollups of glue-gun glue to prevent the dowels from sliding, so I wouldn't have to go out there every-other day to put them back in!)

If you make those 2 board pieces longer at the sides of the tray (the little board that the eye screws are attached to) & cut out a notch to rest the dowels in, you won't have that problem. (Glue or tack the dowels into the notches with brads or wire nails.)

If anyone would like to have the feeder dimensions & dowel sizes that were used in this construction, I'll be glad to go out & measure everything... just say the word.

Patty

I wish i could be so talented to do this alone;)I
wiLL ask my son to help.Thanks for the info,so neat!I will let him read this and go from there.
Thanks,have a great day
Angie

Hello, I thought I could add to the idea about the perch dowels. If you paint them the color you want before completing the structure, you, or your son, could simply drill holes 3/8" deep and 'press fit' them in place. Just hold them in place while you screw in the end peices and voila! no one will be able to take them off.

Carl, the newbie gardener.