We love birdwatching! One of the best ways to attract birds to your garden (or balcony) is to feed them. The children have made a coconut shell bird feeder to welcome the spring birds that are nesting and making their way back from their winter homes.
The supplies for our coconut shell bird feeder:
- Bird seed (of course!)
- Lard (not necessary, but we had some in the cupboard and it’s good for the birds)
- Coconut shells (we still had ours from the Miss Rumphius review)
- String
- Scissors
- Something to make holes in the coconut shell
- Bowl
How to make a coconut shell bird feeder:
I prepared the coconut shells for the kids to use. I used a hammer and screwdriver to punch holes into the shells. I’m not sure if that’s the ‘proper’ way to do it, but it worked while Phil was at work and we were left to our own devices. I’m sure it would be much easier, quicker, and quieter to use a drill! But I was just impressed I didn’t crack the shells into useless pieces!
The string was threaded through the holes and knotted to hold.
Kallista started right away and opened the lard; we ended up using a little under 500gr/1lb of it. Then Tristan started scooping in the bird seed. Quite a lot was needed.
Next it was time to get messy and squeeze the lard and seed together to mix it up. Keep adding birdseed until all of the white lard lumps are completely mixed in. This wasn’t their favourite part of the process. But two years ago they wouldn’t go near it, even using gloves, so that’s an improvement!
Tristan usually has rough hands from eczema, but after mixing the seed and lard he was amazed at how soft his hands were!
When it’s all mixed up, it’s time to start smushing the mixture into the coconut shells.
That’s all there is to it! Just make sure you really press the mixture in well so it does’t fall out once your bird feeder is hung up.
We had lots of bird seed mixture left over so we improvised and made a few more bird feeders out of other household items…but you’ll have to wait for another day for us to show you how those turned out!
We hung these out front in on our blooming sakura tree in the hopes we’d see some birds from the front window. They don’t often take much interest in this tree, but after a few days the bird feeders have now caught the attention of a few starlings and a great tit. I just love the colourings of starlings when the light catches them.
These bird feeders were a success! And once the birds have emptied them we’ll be able to refill the coconut shells and keep the birds well-fed – and maybe their fledglings as well, if we’re lucky.
Of the bird feeders we’ve made in the past (these and these), the coconut shell bird feeders we by far the easiest to make! Now we can take out our free bird recognition cards and watch to see which birds will visit our feeders.
