D.I.Y. bird feeders

[woodenwookie]

At end of 2022 Mrs Wookie asked me to make some bird feeders she'd found online for Little Wookie's teachers. I liked the idea but was worried because I've been super busy at work since COVID lockdowns happened. This is why I haven't posted much on this site for almost a year.

I was able to find the time to make 6. Then Mrs Wookie remembered 2 more teachers so I've made 8 in total for teachers. I'm just about finished my 9th for our neighbour who looked after our cat while we were on holiday. The neighbour's one is the best so far but also not quite as good which I'll get into a little later.

I can make one of these from one 1200 x 140 x 18 pine board from Bunnings. They're pretty simple construction but the first one I made differs immensely from the one I'm currently making. The first one I had the front butt up to the sides on the inside. Subsequent ones I had the front cover the sides thus hiding the end grains. This also gives the tray a little extra room while making it shallower for the smaller birds to easily get at.

For the first 8 I used screws to hold everything together. I do however regret this look which is why for the current one I am using 6mm dowels. As you can see from the photos, this makes everything look so much nicer. I purchase a pack of the PG Professional 6mm Dowel Jointing Kits which gave me the dowel centres that made doing this so much easier. With that purchased I also purchased a PG Professional Dowel Fluted 6mm 60pk for stock because I'm at a point where I think I've nailed the construction of these.

However, I did find that the templates I made for the construction are now all wrong because the holes were drilled for the screws and I'm not using screws any more. I'll have to remake the templates to mark out the dowel placements.

The bottles are held in using a Kinetic 46 - 70mm 316 Stainless Steel Hose Clamp which I cut to size and drilled a hole in the centre. They work great and can be loosened using either a 7mm socket (the driver end of a bit driver is 7mm so you can use that) or a screw driver.

The first 6 I made Little Wookie and Mrs Wookie painted. The last ones I used linseed oil for a more natural look. ALL of them I covered with Rust-Oleum 298g Clear Gloss 2X Ultra Cover to protect them from the rain. I found a Rust-Oleum spray can gun at SuperCheap which I can say is magic for using spray paint.

I'm going to write up how I got rid of the labels from the bottles easily in another post because the method I used is fantastic and well worth being written as its own post.

I used dowels instead of screws for neighbour's one

[EricL]

Hello @woodenwookie

Thank you very much for posting this fantastic-looking bird feeder project. I love that you've paired down the parts to seven pieces and used recycled bottles as the feed container. Can you please tell me what the overall height of the feeder is? I'm sure our members will find this project inspirational.

Again, thank you for sharing this wonderful project.

Eric

[woodenwookie]

The height of the back is 350 so add 18mm for roof.

However, I’m going to be making our one a little larger because we have a beautiful blue bottle of Harvey’s Sherry that I’ll use.

I think good ratio would be size of bottle multiplied by 1.6.

[KatieC]

This is a fantastic project @woodenwookie!

I am sure all that received their bird house are incredibly happy. What birds have you found to frequent the feeders?

Looking forward to your post about how to get rid of the labels from the bottles, I am very interested. 

Katie

[woodenwookie]

The birds eating from these are just your standard birds like sparrows, blackbirds, mynars, thrush, etc.

I’m wanting to make others that support nectar drinkers like Tui. It wouldn’t take much to support these birds. An extended tray and using the bottle caps with a hole drilled into them should work.

[KatieC]

Sounds like another fantastic project on the horizon! I cannot wait to see it. 

Katie