How to Make a Quick and Easy Wild Bird Feeder With a Reused Plastic Bottle

The bottom of the bottle's square opening serves as a perch.

Your empty plastic bottles provide an inexpensive means of attracting birds -- and possibly a few squirrels -- to your property. Reuse bottles that contained beverages to create these feeders. Bottles that contained products such as shampoos or household cleaners could contain traces of chemical residue that may harm birds. You need only make slight modifications to the container, so with your supplies prepared, you can transform it into a basic but functional bird feeder within approximately 20 minutes.

Things You'll Need

• Two-liter beverage bottle
• Utility knife
• Drill
• 1/8-inch drill bit
• 5/16-inch drill bit
• 1/4-inch drill bit
• Nine-inch dowel rod
• Twine or wire
• Packing or duct tape
• Bird seed

Instructions

1. Prepare the bottle by rinsing it and removing its label.

2. Drill a 5/16-inch hole close to the neck but still on the thickest portion of the bottle, and drill another hole of the same size on the opposite side. Insert a nine-inch-long wooden dowel rod in the hole and push it out the other side, leaving about 2.5 inches of the rod extending from both sides of the bottle to serve as perches.

3. Drill a hole with the 1/4-inch bit 1 to 2 inches directly below the hole the rod extends from, with the bottle standing upright. Repeat this on the opposite side. When you turn the bottle upside down, these holes serve as openings for the birds to eat from while standing on the wooden perches.

4. Turn the bottle upside down. Loop twine or flexible metal wire through the two holes in the bottom, and tie the ends together. Stick pieces of packing tape or duct tape around the holes you pulled the twine through, with the sides of the tape pressed against the twine and the bottom of the bottle. This seals gaps between the twine and the edges of the holes to prevent rain from dripping into the feed.

5. Pour wild bird seed into the bottle, cap it, turn it upside down and hang the wire or twine from a sturdy tree branch.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a smaller square or shorter dowel rod to make a feeder with a 12-oz. bottle.

• Drill 5/16-inch holes above the rods if you want to fill the bottle with sunflower seeds.

• Puncture the plastic with a nail if you don't have a drill for holes.

References

• Northern State University: Making Bird Feeders
• The University of Tennessee at Knoxville; Instead of a "White Christmas" Why Not Try Green?"; Jay Price