Bird Feeder Activities
Bring nature into your yard this summer with easy and fun do-it-yourself bird feeders that you and your kids can do together. Enjoy the variety of birds that visit your yard all summer long! You can do these projects with children of any age.
Learning Opportunity: Have children use their observation skills to try and identify the birds that visit your bird feeder. You can download a bird identifyer chart from the internet so your child can match the bird and learn it’s name. Be sure that the bird identifyer chart matches your geographic area (northwest, eastern, southwest etc.).
PINE CONE BIRD FEEDER
What you will need: A large pine cone, peanut butter, wild bird seed, twine or wire. Don’t have a pine cone? You can use a recycled toilet paper roll instead. If your child is allergic to peanut butter, substitute with honey.
Instructions: Shake out all loose materials from your pine cone. Tie, string, yarn or twine through the bottom of your pine cone for hanging. Spread the peanut butter using a popcicle stick or butter knife to cover all sides of the pine cone. Spread a good layer of the bird seed on a cookie sheet or in a bowl and roll your pine cone on the bird seed until it is covered on all sides. That’s it! Now hang your pine cone using twine or wire in a location that is safe from cats or other small animals. Now just wait to see what type of bird comes along.
HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER
What you will need: Plastic water bottle, cork the size of bottle opening (1”), Plastic tubing, electrical tape in a bright color, twine or wire for hanging.
Instructions: Drill a hole into the center of your cork 5the size of your plastic tubing. Insert tube ensuring that it has a tight fitting so the liquid will not leak out. Leave 1 inch that will be inside thebottle and 4 inches that will be outside the bottle. Cover the outside tip of the tube with electrical tape (either red or yellow). Punch a small hole in the tape using a paper clip the size of a hummingbird’s beak. Tie the wire or twine to the bottom of the bottle for hanging.
You can also just purchase a ready-made stopper and tubing from your garden or craft shop.
Hummingbird Nectar:
1 cup of sugar, 4 cups of water, red food coloring
Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, place in freezer to cool (do not allow to freeze)
Poor into your plastic hummingbird feeder and secure the cork with tubing into the opening. If cork leaks use the same electrical tape around opening. Hang near a window so you can enjoy watching the hummingbirds when they visit your feeder.
Be sure to clean your feeder each time you replace nectar to avoid bateria that can make the hummingbirds ill.
SIMPLE BIRD FEEDERS:
Orange feeder
Take a large orange or grapefruit, cut in half, hollow out by removing all of the fruit from the peel to create a small bowl. Punch two holes in either side and string twine for hanging. Fill the orange or grapefruit bowl with wild bird seed and hang. How easy is that!
Tin Can feeder
Use an empty tin can that has a plastic lid. Be sure to remove the bottom and top of your tin can so that it is open at both ends. Cut the lid in half and place each half over both openings of the tin can. Use string or twine and insert it into the can so each side has an equal amout of twine coming out of the can and tie the ends together to form a loop for hanging. Fill the can with wild bird seed up to the edge of the plastic lid. If you want to give the birds a perching location, you can insert a stick or dowel through the can and out the lids.
Check out these great ideas on our Pinterest boards:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/501869952215463289/
Check out the Word document of this activity below:
| bird_feeder_activities.docx |
