These homemade bird feeders are a great way to give your local wild birds a real treat. You can make them at any time of year, but it’s particularly important to support wild birds in winter.
Why homemade bird feeders are great for feeding wild birds in winter
Winter is a tough time of year for wild birds, as natural food sources such as insects and berries are scarce. Also, birds need lots of energy-rich food to maintain fat reserves, which are called upon most when temperatures drop.
Providing a winter food source for birds is not only a great way to help your local wildlife; encouraging birds to visit your garden will supply you with plenty of interest during the winter months.
You can buy a wide variety of *bird food and *fat balls to keep your feathered friends happy, but making your own homemade bird feeders is simple to do. It’s also a lovely activity to get kids involved with.
How to make homemade bird feeders
Here’s how to make bird feeders with lard or other solid fats.
Homemade bird feeder recipe
You will need
Lard, suet or solid vegetable fat (this last option is great for vegetarian-friendly feeders)
Wild *bird food, oats, breadcrumbs, sultanas, currants, unsalted peanuts (you don’t need all of these, a mixture of any is fine)
Empty, clean paper cups or yoghurt pots
String
Easy DIY bird feeder instructions
To make your bird feeders, start by mixing your dry ingredients in a bowl. We’ve found that a ratio of about 2 parts dry to 1 part fat/suet works well.
Melt the lard or suet in a saucepan, then add it to your dry ingredients and stir until everything is well mixed. Supervise children very carefully while doing this. I let mine do some mixing, but handle the heating and pouring myself to avoid any risk of burns.
How to stop leaks!
Once your ingredients are well-mixed, leave them to cool a little while you prepare your paper cups. This will make the mixture safer to handle, but will also mean you get less leakage.
Cut a 40cm length of string. Use a pencil to make a small hole in the bottom of each paper cup, and thread the string through. Leave about 10cm on the outside of the cup, and about 20cm on the inside of the cup.
Tie a double knot in the string at the base of the cup, on the outside. It’s a good idea to put a small circle of cardboard with a hole in the centre at the bottom before tying the knot, this will help stop the feeder slipping off the string.
Fill the cup with your food mixture, making sure to pack it down quite tightly. Try to keep the string in the middle of the cup.
Once you’ve filled all your cups, put them in the fridge to set. This can take quite a while; we usually leave our bird feeders overnight.
Hanging your homemade bird feeders in the garden
When the mixture is set, you can cut away the cup to remove the bird feeder. This can be a bit fiddly, so it’s best left to the adults and older children. Have some kitchen roll handy too, you’ll get quite greasy!
The knotted string is at the bottom of the feeder. Use the string at the other end to hang it up outdoors.
Remember to position your homemade bird feeders where you can see them from the house, and out of the reach of cats.
Once your homemade bird feeders are in position, you could try making a diary of the bird varieties who visit. This is a fun extension of the activity for kids, and also a nice way to maintain interest in the garden over the winter months.
More ideas for easy homemade garden bird feeders
Here are a few more ideas for making your own wild bird feeders.
Fun shaped garden bird feeders
You can use the same fat and bird seed mixture to make homemade bird feeders in fun shapes too. Large shaped cookie cutters and hollowed out orange halves are perfect for this; check out my post on easy DIY bird feeders for kids for full instructions.
Easy drinks bottle DIY bird feeders
An empty drinks bottle and an old wooden spoon are great for making garden bird feeders with dry bird seed.
Wild bird feeders made from pumpkins
Pumpkins and squash make great bird seed feeders. We made this hanging bird feeder from half a hollowed-out pumpkin, sticks and string. Birds will love to eat the pumpkin as well as the bird food.
You could also use large oranges, grapefruits or coconuts for your bird food holder instead of a pumpkin.
Simple upcycled bird feeders for small birds
This is another super-simple idea for using an old plate or saucer to make a homemade bird feeder:
How long do homemade bird feeders last?
The answer to this question depends very much on how many birds there are visiting your garden. In our experience, a homemade fat ball feeder is always demolished in a matter of days – much more quickly than shop-bought ones. Our local birds clearly think they taste better!
You may also find that once you start providing homemade bird feeders, more and more birds will visit your garden. I think they must be spreading the word that there are rich pickings on offer 😉
Do you think you’ll have a go at making your own homemade bird feeders? What bird feeders do you use to encourage wild birds to visit your garden?
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Oh I must make these with the children again, they are brilliant!
Aren’t they just? My kids absolutely loved it and it really made a difference to the number of birds visiting the garden. Must make some more when the festive chaos calms down!
Hello, I live across the Pond and think this is a Great Idea..Will need to make these with the Grand kids..Thanks..
One of my favourite activities as a child! The whole process of learning and the reward makes this a perfect activity for children. So easy too!
I bet this feeder didnt last 2 days! The birds loooove them, don’t they?
Miss Tulip
The Thrifty Magpies Nest
It’s one of my kids’ favourite activities, they love that they can pretty much do it without any help. Ours last a few days but the more we make the more visitors we get, word obviously gets around!
I’ve just done this with my kids. Instead of tying a knot though I am going to use a 6″ long twig that hopefully the birds can use as a perch whilst they enjoy their dinner!
That’s a great idea!
Cutting a small circle of cardboard with pin hole in center to place at the bottom of the cup will insure that the string doesn’t pull through the seed cake.
Fab tip, thanks!
I would suggest using two strings spaced at either edge of the bottom of the cup, tying the twig in two places will make it more stable, using on point of attachment will make it go up and down when the bird lands on it and the bird will probably fly away.
Great tip, thanks!
I lovre your bird feeder I am definitely going to make a couple feeder to put in my backyard. Because I have a little square that I have been feeding for about 2 years some time when I put food out for the square the birds get it’s before the square. Thank you from lynn
Will this bird feeder melt in our hot South African sun.
I think they probably will as there’s a high proportion of lard in them. I think there’s something called ‘no-melt suet’ on the market but I’ve never used it – you might be better sticking to dry food.
I agree with Catherine but you may be able to find a cool shaded area to hang it.
Northern birds in cold temperatures are usually in need of this type of food for our long , cold winters. It helps keep them warm.
I make similar treats for the birds. So that big pieces don’t fall off when the birds peck at them, I pop them onside a bit of mesh bag (from onions, clemantines etc). Works great. The birds just love homemade treats.
That’s a good idea to avoid a lot of waste.
We’ve got the ingredients for these on our supermarket shop for this week. My eldest will enjoy it and will love watching the birds eat it.
Brilliant – have fun!
These are just ACE! anything we could use instead of lard?
I think it would probably work just as well with solid vegetable fat like Trex.
Peanut butter
What a fun activity to do with the kids! We have always done them with coconut oil or peanut butter, in an orange peel. Regardless, they look so sweet hanging in the yard.
#chasingnature
That sounds like a great way to make them too, I love the idea of pretty orange halves hanging on the branches.
We feed the birds every day rain or snow or good weather. We are going to try a few of these as a change and may just do what we were doing along with this new idea. I love to watch the birds and squirrels on my back yard as I have breakfast in the AM. Thanks for the idea.
It’s so lovely watching the local wildlife visit isn’t it – my kids really enjoy spotting who comes to feed. Have fun 🙂
Take empty toilet paper rolls, tie a string on one end for hanging, slather outside with peanut butter, roll in bird seed mix. THE birds just love these. Hang on branches near a window.
I love this – so simple! Thanks for sharing 🙂
After my two cats died last year, I am getting loads of birds visiting my garden now, and I am especially fond of a Robin who is quite a bully over one particular fence panel that he likes to perch on, and he chases the other birds away from it!!!!! I’ve got suet balls out there and a nut feeder, but i haven’t watched them eat from it so I’m going to try these and see if I can entice them further!!!
We have a very similar-sounding robin who has a favourite branch that he defends! These feeders are definitely the most popular food we put out for the birds, hope they’re a hit with your visitors too 🙂
This was a great craft for our nursing home
The residents loved it
Catherine I love these! I remember making them as a kid – now I’m going to do them with mine. Thanks for sharing 🙂
They’re one of my kids favourite crafts – hope yours have fun with them too!
Where do you buy lard?? (US)
I don’t think it’s very easy to find lard in the US, but an alternative is vegetable shortening – I think Crisco is the main US brand?
I’ve found lard in my local walmart
If you have a private meat locker, they have lard. It is better than grocery store lard! I’m in a rural area so many small towns around us have lockers.
{Lard} Can Be Found In The US @ Walmart,Grocery Store & Some Country Stores Here In The Southern States..Not Sure If Northerns Would Know How To Use It Unless They Were Originally From Or Lived Near A Southern State.js
I Love The Idea Of Using The Empty Onion or Orange Webbed Bags, I Also Use Them For A Non Scratch Pot Scrubber..
I’m using beef fat and I rendered it down. How do you keep the fat from running out the bottom of the cup.
I find that tying a nice big knot in the string helps prevent most of the fat from running out, but there’s always a bit of leakage. We stand our pots in a shallow, flat-bottomed dish until they’ve set.
I found your post on Pinterest. I’ve thought of making these as I buy suet packs for my woodpecker feeder. I have lard… we are hog farmers. ☺️ Do you only use these in the winter when it is freezing? If I only use lard, it will melt in sunshine. I’m northern US, even a cold spring this year … today is only 50°F/10°C.
What type of store do you buy plain suet for this? (I know it may be different for me as I see you are UK. ☺️)
Thanks! (cute children!)
Yes we don’t really use them when the weather is warmer – we can just about manage if we hang them in a really shady spot, but they are definitely better suited to cooler temperatures. They never hang around for long in our garden which helps! In the UK suet is available in grocery stores, not sure whether that’s the case in other countries though, sorry!
Thanks!! I will look for it at a grocery as well as online.
To stop your lard (rendered pork fat) or suet (rendered beef fat) from running in warmer weather add all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour to the mixture. Maybe a cup. I have a recipe somewhere that I got from the internet. So do a search for no melt bird balls or suet cakes.
Great tip, thanks!
It’s not the feeders, it’s what you are feeding. I agree with vonyon, the best bird feeders are the ones you grow, but good quality and carefuly picked seed makes all the difference.
lisa
So would you say melt one cup of crisco and add it to two cups bird seed? I was thinking of doing this as a library craft but it might be too complicated.
I haven’t used crisco specifically, but I would guess that the ratio of 1:2 would still apply. Perhaps add the melted fat gradually and stop if the mixture begins to look very liquid. It’s not a complicated activity but you would definitely need to cover your surfaces to limit the mess!
Hi Catherine,
I was searching inspiration for something to do with my children to encourage them to feed the birds as I too agree it’s extremely important that we help out at this time of year, I’ve even taken the time to write about it around this time last year funnily enough. Love the detail of your post and I think this is a lovely tip to get them involved in the garden in a fun and hands on way.
Regards
Terry
That’s great to hear, thanks! Have fun 🙂
No problem Catherine thanks, and if it’s possible to sponsor a post to support your blog I’d love to do so. Just pop me an email at info@gardentoolbox.co.uk, Richie handles payments!
Hello, I live across the Pond and think this is a Great Idea. thank you for this post.
Kids love to get messy and can mix this really well. Also good to show kids that birds also need water, even in the cold weather