Tutorial - Fall Kids Craft - Pumpkin Bird Feeder

Now that it is cold out, our feathered friends are in search of food.  My son and I had such a good time creating this little pumpkin shaped bird feeder to help the birds out!

To make this feeder you just need two 2 liter soda bottles, a wooden dowel, a pipe cleaner, and acrylic paint.  The feeder requires a little adult prep work before the kids can paint and help assemble it. 

First, cute the soda bottles.  They have a spot at the bottom where they get a bit wider, cut one bottle there and the other about 1.5" above that spot.  Then the taller one should fit snugly inside the other.

Make a hole in the shorter one just below where you cut and then directly across from that hole make a second hole.  I used a drill to make my holes but then later found that a regular hole punch like you would use on paper works well too.  

Put the two halves together with the taller fitting inside the shorter one.  Mark where the two holes go on the tall one, you need the dowel to go through both halves so it stays together when the birds sit on it. Take them apart and make the holes where you marked.

Cut larger holes for the birds to get the seeds, I used the bottle top to trace so my holes where fairly round and cut with a craft knife. 

Drill two holes in the top to hang.

Cut a leaf shape out of the unused bottle.  You want to draw the leaf sideways on the bottle so it lays right after it is cut.  Poke a hole in the top of the leaf.

Let the kids paint away!  Once the paint drys, you can spray it with a clear varnish if you desire.

Assemble the feeder.  String a ribbon through the holes in the top to hang and add your leaf.  Curl a pipe cleaner around a marker to make a stem and slip it over the ribbon.  Then put your feeder halves together and push the dowel through the holes at the bottom.

Fill with bird seed and hang it out for the birds!