During the fall and winter, as trees die and snow eventually covers the ground, many birds have a harder time finding their food than during the spring and summer months. But unlike their hibernating woodland counterparts, birds still look for sustenance in the coldest months!
A very nice way to help them out a bit, and attract beautiful birds into your yard is to make your own bird feeder. It’s very easy to make and doesn’t require much at all.
This is a great indoor, snow day craft for little ones. You can make the bird feeders with them, then hang them on a tree within view of the house, and then watch the birds come and feed from it! So much better than TV.
Another great thing about this craft is it uses pinecones, which can often be found on the ground in abundance during the winter. So if you have several on your property or in a park or along hiking trail you like to visit, this is a great way to use them up. It’d make a great activity for a children’s birthday party, or a homeschool or church group craft as well.
What You Need:
- Pinecones
- Peanut butter
- Cornmeal
- Birdseed
- Ribbon, twine or wire
- Large bowls, pans or wide plates
What You Do:
- Spoon some peanut butter into a bowl. It’s impossible to say how much you need as that will be based on the size of the pinecone and the consistency of the brand of peanut butter you have, but to give a rough idea, 1/2 a cup for 2 or 3 pinecones is probably a good place to start.
- Mix in a bit of cornstarch, about 2 tsp per 1/2 of the peanut butter, and stir to combine. You might need more; the idea is to make the peanut butter more gritty so that the birds can eat it easier.
- Pour your birdseed, about 2 or 3 cups to start, into your bowl, pan or wide plate. You just need a big enough area to be able to roll the pinecone around in the birdseed.
- Secure your ribbon, string or wire to the pinecone. You will probably want to tie it around the middle and train some up the side so that it can be hung. It doesn’t have to be perfectly symmetrical, it just has to be secure and able to be hung from a tree.
- Using a spoon or wide popsicle stick, spread the peanut butter mixture over the pinecone. Try to fill as much of the gaps as you can with peanut butter.
- Roll the pinecone in the birdseed, pressing the seeds into the peanut butter and the gaps in the pinecone.
- Shake the pinecone off over the container that the birdseed is in, just so you don’t make a mess on your way to hang them!
- Once you’re done putting the peanut butter and seed on the pinecones, hang them in a tree and enjoy the sight of happy birds with lots of free food!
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