~DIY Birdhouses & Feeders~

[EverythingDucks]

My grandpa loves makings stuff, and birds, so what better way to combine the two? I want to work on some birdhouses and feeders for our flower garden. Any ideas?
Here are some ideas that I've found for the houses:

I want to do this against the fence, just maybe not as many

Some natural ones

Maybe a detailed one like this would be cool

Some colorful ones

And maybe I'll paint one like this

As for the feeders I'm not to sure. Might try to make something similar to this

Give me your ideas and feel free to share pictures of your feeders and bird houses!

 

[orloffer]

Those are all good ideas! What sort of birds live in your area?

 

[EverythingDucks]

Those are all good ideas! What sort of birds live in your area?

Cardinals, blue Jay's, mocking birds, tufted titmouses, Thrashers, wrens, mourning doves, and black capped chickadees. Those are the most common. Every once in a while I'll see some house sparrows, or red wax wings, wood peckers, and the pigeons are always on the power lines.

 

[orloffer]

We have mockingbirds, pigeons, some sort of woodpecker, and mourning doves here, too.
I rather like the natural-looking birdhouses, because I think birds would take to them more quickly, but the other designs are equally nice.

 

[LT71689]

I had a cedar gazebo feeder like the one pictured for half a summer.

It came as a solid piece, and while it did have small drainage holes in the bottom, eventually you need to clean out discarded feed (like sunflower shells) and all the gunky build up from poop and rain and leaves and whatnot. That was a huge pain, because there's a ton of nooks and crannies inside each panel and its tough to get your hands in there. It took me a solid hour with a tooth brush and it still wasnt CLEAN, just not as bad as it could have been.

The tube is also positioned on three L shaped feet attached to the bottom. The tube sits up on the feet so the feed continuously flows through the space between the tube and the bottom. Squirrels were not satisfied with not having access to all the feed inside the tube and ate the feet away. The tube doesnt fit out the holes though, so it was nearly impossible to fix.

I eventually abandoned it on the sidewalk for someone else to turn into their fixer-upper project and purchased one of the same design in PVC/Vinyl/coated wood. It cleans up easier and the squirrels have a harder time dismantling it (though they've certainly taken a stab at it). I'm still not thrilled that none of it comes apart, I have to do periodic vacuums with my dust buster and small extension attachment to get all the crumbs out and then blast it with a hose and wait for it to drip dry forever. Still have to scrub from 40 different angles with a tooth brush when I want to give it a deep clean. Hands still get scraped up when I try to reach inside (my hands are small, most people's hands probably dont fit at all) And I dont like that I can never clean inside the tube - I use chili oil to try to repel the squirrels (it only sometimes almost works, I dont know why I try) and that can gum it all up after a while.

All of this is to say - if you decide to make your own, tweak the design so the top or one of the sides can come off so you can really clean the thing. Hinging one of the panels should be easy enough. Taking the top off might be a bit more tricky because you'd need a way to secure it down, but could be done.


Otherwise it's the best feeder I could find for my set up. I've got a whole flock of boisterous birds that caused total chaos on the two hanging designs I tried and were constantly fighting over perch space, the gazebo on a post is so much more sturdy and because it's static I lose a lot less seed from the fighting.