A bird feeder is the cheapest entertainment you will ever hang in a yard. These DIY bird feeders run from a four dollar cedar box you can cut in twenty minutes to a teacup glued sideways onto its own saucer, and somewhere in the middle sit wine bottles, terra cotta pots, thrifted platters, tin cans wearing foam flowers and an acorn built out of quarter inch wire mesh. Several take no tools at all, because a seed cake pressed into a cookie cutter is still a feeder as far as a chickadee is concerned. The wooden ones are real builds with cut lists and drain holes, so there is something here whether you own a miter saw or a hot glue gun. Every tutorial links back to the maker who worked it out.
DIY Bird Feeders
1. Wine Bottle Bird Feeder
The whole frame comes off one eight foot 1×2 pine furring strip and a small poplar hobby board, with a 750 ml wine bottle doing the work of a seed hopper. A three to five inch stainless steel hose clamp holds the bottle in place, fed through a pair of slits you make by drilling three small holes in a line on the back panel, so the tightness stays adjustable. The one measurement worth getting right is the gap at the bottom. Leave only a few centimeters between the bottle neck and the base or the seed pours out faster than the birds can eat it.
Get the full tutorial at Elizabeth Joan Designs.
2. Cute Star Bird Feeder
Three quarters of a cup of birdseed, a quarter cup of water and one small envelope of Knox gelatine is the entire recipe. Simmer the gelatine and water until it dissolves, let it cool a minute, then stir in the seed and keep adding more until no liquid sits in the bottom of the pan. Lay cookie cutters on wax paper, fill halfway, push a knotted length of twine down into the middle, then top up and press firm. They dry overnight and need turning now and then. One reader tip from the comments: a little hot pepper in the mix puts squirrels off and birds do not mind.
Get the full tutorial at Eighteen25.
3. Clay Pot Bird Feeder
A small terracotta pot hung upside down, a ribbon threaded up through the drainage hole, and a wooden stick rolled in lard and seed knotted underneath as both perch and dinner. That is the entire build, and it costs whatever a pot costs. The part worth reading is the feeding note at the bottom of the source: seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, dried fruit and cereal are all fine, mixed with lard or unflavored gelatin, but bread and candy are not, because they swell in a bird’s stomach. Hang a few at different heights and the pots read as garden decor even when empty.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Masters.
4. Acorn Bird Feeder
The cap is a thrifted round wooden bowl and the body is quarter inch metal mesh cut to a fourteen by seven inch rectangle, rolled into a tube and locked shut by bending the open points around the smooth edge with needle nose pliers. The bottom gets folded into a square, four three inch corner lines snipped out, and the remaining flaps folded in to close the point. Two small nails in the bowl rim catch the mesh and hold the cap on, which is also how you refill it. Use large birdseed only, because anything small pours straight through the mesh.
Get the full tutorial at Tried & True Creative.
5. Mason Jar Bird Feeder
This one is a suet cake poured straight into a handled mason jar glass, with a dowel rod set through the middle as a perch. The mix is a quarter cup of boiling water, half a packet of unflavored gelatin, a tablespoon and a half of corn syrup, half a cup of flour and a cup and a half of birdseed, and the easiest way to combine it is with your hands. Pack it in around the dowel, press down hard, then wrap wire around both sides of the handle to hang it. Make several while the mix is warm, because they set fast and they give well.
Get the full tutorial at Crafts by Amanda.
6. Bird Feeder From Old Lighting Fixture
A salvaged outdoor lamp post fixture, the kind with glass panes in a hexagonal housing, turns into a feeder with almost no work. The maker rescued four of them from someone’s trash pile, and the one with broken panes became this, because missing glass is exactly what you want when birds need a way in. Paint it a color you like, glue a shallow dish inside on the light stem, pour in seed, and set it on a post. It is a two step project whose entire success rests on finding the right cast off fixture, so keep an eye on curbs and estate sales.
Get the full tutorial at Finding Secret Treasure.
7. DIY Tea Cup Bird Feeder
A teacup glued on its side to its own saucer, seed spilling out the open mouth, hung from a gutter hook. It takes about four minutes of actual work and then twenty four hours of doing nothing while the adhesive cures, which is the step everyone skips and then regrets when the cup lets go in the first hard rain. Run a generous bead of a proper outdoor adhesive along the whole length of the cup where it meets the saucer, not a few dots. Charity shops sell orphan cups and saucers for pocket change, so a mismatched set costs less than a coffee.
Get the full tutorial at Mommy Moment.
8. Charming Upcycled Bird Feeder
This is the grouped approach rather than a single build: a painted lamp shade turned upside down as a hanging feeder, a scalloped white dish hung flat underneath as a shallow bath, and a small red lantern feeder alongside, all clustered on one bracket among hanging baskets. Hung together at different heights they work better than any one of them alone, because ground feeders, perchers and clingers all want different things. It also means a mismatched pile of thrifted bits reads as a deliberate arrangement. Keep the water dish lowest and shallowest, and scrub it more often than you think you need to.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
9. Make Your Own Bird Feeder
A melamine bowl and a melamine plate, both under two dollars at the discount store, stacked on a ten inch carriage bolt with washers and nuts. Plastic cracks and blows out when you drill it, so the fix is to hold a block of scrap wood tight against the underside where the bit comes through. Some chipping still happens and it hides under the washers. The stack order that stops the wobble is washer, glue, bowl, glue, washer, then a nut, the plate, another nut hand tightened so the plate cannot move without cracking. The plate sits above the bowl as a rain roof.
Get the full tutorial at Erin's Creative Energy.
10. DIY Candy Jar Bird Feeder
A lidded candy jar sitting on a dollar store glass cylinder vase, with the vase packed full of mixed glass marbles so the whole column glows when the light hits it. The jar was painted with Plaid Gallery Glass rather than ordinary glass paint, because the first paint the maker tried was not transparent enough and killed the effect. Clear Household Goop holds the pieces together and the parts slide while it sets, so check the alignment repeatedly for the first few minutes. Wire wrapped six or seven times around the lid handle, with beads added, makes the hanger.
Get the full tutorial at Second Chance to Dream.
11. Ketchup Bottle Bird Feeder
An upended squeezy ketchup bottle makes a surprisingly good seed hopper. Four small triangular ports cut around what becomes the lower end let seed trickle out, a plastic plant drip tray drilled through the middle slides over the neck and screws down under the bottle cap to catch it, and a length of string knotted inside the base makes the hanger. The clear plastic means you can read the seed level from the kitchen window. The label is the joke and the whole point, so leave it on. Rinse the bottle thoroughly first, because sugar and vinegar residue goes sour in warm weather.
Get the full tutorial at Wildlife Gadget Man.
12. Easy DIY Oriole Feeder
Orioles want oranges, not seed, and this cedar post feeder is built entirely around that. A scrap two by four at least thirteen inches long gets a 45 degree peak cut on one end and dog eared corners at the bottom, then two quarter inch holes drilled perpendicular through it, one centered an inch and a quarter from the bottom and the other six and a half inches up, for dowel perches. Two roof pieces cut from a one by eight nail on at the peak with the longer one overlapping. Orange halves spear onto galvanized finishing nails driven through the front.
Get the full tutorial at Birds & Blooms.
13. DIY Tin Can Flower Bird Feeder
Clean tin cans with the labels off, spray painted, each wearing a six inch pre cut foam flower around the open end. The trick that makes the flower grip is in the cutting: trace the can opening onto the foam, draw a second circle about half an inch smaller inside it, cut out that inner circle, then cut crisscrossing lines from it out to the traced line so you get a ring of tabs. Hot glue the tabs to the outside of the can. Two quarter inch holes punched a quarter inch in from each end take the twine hanger.
Get the full tutorial at Birds & Blooms.
14. DIY Wine Bottle Bird Feeder
The build is a saucer epoxied to the base of a wine bottle with a hole drilled through each side, but the drilling is the whole project. Use a diamond bit just under half an inch. Keep it wet the entire time, either submerged or with somebody spraying water at it. Start the drill first and bring the spinning bit to the glass at 45 degrees, then ease it upright. Never push, because you are grinding rather than drilling. Slow right down at breakthrough and lift rather than press, which is exactly where the maker shattered a few. Wear eye protection. That bit size suits sunflower chips or safflower better than whole sunflower seed.
Get the full tutorial at The Garden-Roof Coop.
15. Thrifted Pot Lid Bird Feeder
Two mismatched enamel pot lids from a thrift store, disassembled and re-stacked on a threaded rod, make a platform feeder with a built in rain roof. The larger lid goes on top as the cover and the smaller one below holds the seed, spaced apart by a coupling nut, with an eye bolt and two hex nuts at the top for hanging. The one genuinely useful piece of advice from the maker: carry the lids into the hardware store with you when you buy the rod and nuts, however silly it feels, because guessing the thread size from memory never works.
Get the full tutorial at Sadie Seasongoods.
16. Popsicle Stick Bird Feeders
Fifty popsicle sticks and one tongue depressor as the landing ledge. Lay twelve sticks side by side, glue two across them, flip it over and lay a second row running the opposite way to stop the base flexing, then build the walls up log cabin style. The maker’s own story is the useful part: she tried a popsicle stick birdhouse first, gave up an hour in, and switched to the feeder, which took thirty minutes and actually held four and five year olds’ attention. Hemp cord at two corners hangs it. Outdoor paint, or it will not last a season.
Get the full tutorial at Tonya Staab.
17. Upcycled Bird Feeder
A thrifted silver platter with pierced holes around the rim, which is what makes it hangable without drilling anything. The shine gets knocked back with jewelry glaze applied to the outside only, since the inside is about to be full of seed, then sealed with clear enamel against the rain. Jewelry wire, beads, charms and jump rings get strung all around the edge, and fourteen gauge wire through three of the rim holes twisted up to a loop makes the hanger. The maker tried twine first and says wire looks far better. Hers hangs off an old shelf bracket on a fence.
Get the full tutorial at Cutesy Crafts.
18. Vintage Tea Cup Bird Feeder
Chipped or cracked vintage china is the entire point here, because a cup that can no longer be drunk from is still perfectly good hanging in a tree. The filling is a two thirds seed to one third fat ratio, which works out at a 750 gram bag of wild bird seed to a 250 gram pack of lard or suet. Bring the fat to room temperature first so it works. Knead it into the seed spread over a chopping board, keep adding seed until it takes no more, then press it into each cup leaving a five millimetre gap below the rim so the birds have something to grip.
Get the full tutorial at The Natural Wedding Company, guest post by Sharon of For The Love Of Vintage.
19. Apple Birdseed Homemade Bird Feeder
Apple halves with the core scooped out, packed with birdseed and hung on twine. It is a five minute autumn project with no cooking, no glue and nothing that needs to set, which makes it the one to reach for when you have a restless child and twenty minutes before dark. The apple itself gets eaten too once the seed goes, so there is nothing left to take down afterwards. Hang them where you can see them from a window, because the whole payoff is watching what turns up, and swap them out every few days before they go soft.
Get the full tutorial at Natural Beach Living.
20. Recycled Bottle Birdfeeder
A plastic liter bottle cut cleanly around its circumference, sandwiched between two six inch wooden disks and two standard Ball jar lids, all threaded on a crown bolt with a wooden ball finial on top. Punch the feeding openings low, near the bottom of the finished feeder, so gravity actually pushes seed out to them. The genuinely useful note is about seed rather than build: the maker started with a large bird mix, got starlings, and switched to millet, thistle and shelled sunflower to bring in finches and smaller songbirds instead. What you fill it with decides who comes.
Get the full tutorial at Centsational Style.
21. Super Easy Hanging Bird Feeder
Another teacup and plate feeder, and the difference worth noting is in how the glue goes on. Sit the cup on its side first and roll it until you find the position where it lies flattest against the plate, then run a thick strip of E6000 the entire length of that contact line rather than a spot at each end. Set something heavy inside the cup to hold it down and leave it overnight. Cup and plate together cost a couple of dollars at a second hand or dollar store, and letting a child pick the pattern is most of the fun.
Get the full tutorial at Daily Dish Magazine.
22. Wooden Bird Feeder
Six feet of one by six cedar, about four dollars, and twenty minutes. The cut list is two pieces at twelve inches, two at nine, one at ten, and two more ten inch pieces ripped lengthwise into two and an eighth inch strips for the lips. Find the centre of the nine inch boards and cut a 45 degree angle out to each side for the peak. Glue and inch and a quarter screws throughout. Two details make it last: a bead of all weather caulk inside the roof line, and small drain holes in the base, small enough that the seed stays put.
Get the full tutorial at 100 Things 2 Do.
23. Orange Bird Feeder
Halve an orange, scoop the flesh out, and you have a bowl. Pierce four small holes on opposite sides about half an inch down from the cut edge, thread a twenty four inch length of twine through one pair and out the other side, repeat with a second length through the remaining holes so the two cross in an X underneath, then gather the four ends and knot them. Fill with seed and hang. The whole thing takes ten minutes and the maker has been publishing it for over a decade, which tells you it works.
Get the full tutorial at Sheri Silver.
24. How to Turn an Old Chandelier Into a Bird Feeder
An old chandelier with its wiring stripped out, sanded back, sprayed a fresh color and fitted with a small painted ramekin in each bulb cup. Because the arms hold the ramekins well apart, several birds can feed at once without one bully clearing the rest off, which is exactly where a single tray feeder falls down. Thrift stores and salvage yards are full of brass chandeliers nobody wants indoors any more, so the raw material costs very little. Heavy duty adhesive sets the ramekins and a little hot glue holds them steady while it cures. Leave the inside of each ramekin unpainted.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
