Autumn is in full glory in the Bay Area, and soon winter will be here. You need to make a decision about feeding the birds in your neighborhood: many will not migrate if there is a steady food supply. If you continue feeding them now, you need to make a commitment for feeding them all winter. If you do decide to feed them all winter, here is a project that can make that easier: the drink-carton bird feeder.

Birds are naturally curious animals, and they will explore anything hanging in your yard or balcony.

Ingredients:

• Juice or other waxy box carton, thoroughly cleaned and dry
• String or twine
• Birdseed

Tools:

• serrated knife
• scissors

Make it:

1. Cut out a window on all four sides of your container. You can adjust the size of the windows to suit the type of birds you have.
2. Punch a hole in the pointy tented-flap top of the carton, and put a loop of string through the hole.
3. Fill the bird feeder with seed to just below the window sill level and hang somewhere you can enjoy watching the birds.

What is really nice about this project: it keeps the seed dry; if you don’t fill it too full, the birds are less likely to scatter the seeds; when the birds finish off the seeds, if they made a mess inside (the smaller birds will climb inside), you can throw it out and start over with a new one carton. You do not have to clean it out before refilling.

You might even get some birds to use this as a bird house, but I have not had much luck with that. If you want to give it a try, make only one opening in the carton, and punch some holes in the bottom for drainage. With bird houses, the size of the opening and the height of the birdhouse often make a determination about which type of bird will live there.

Kevin : DIY Projects, Raw Materials, Reinventing X
October 29th, 2006