DIY Bird Feeder Kit, A fun stay at home project!

With the kids home from school for the foreseeable future and the pressure on to keep them busy, I’ve been on the lookout for fun activities that we can do together. Watching the birds in the backyard has always been enjoyable in the mornings so when I saw this DIY bird feeder kit on amazon I knew it would be the perfect little project for me and kids. Next up perhaps we’ll try a birdhouse!

The kit we picked came with everything you need to build the feeder (minus the hammer and any paints) and was relatively simple in its design. While the kids have helped me build a few things in the past I wanted to pick a project that they would be challenged by but not become overly frustrated (plus I like my fingers). This kit turned out to be perfect. It’s was small and came with nice easy to follow directions.

DIY Bird Feeder Kit, A fun stay at the home project!

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DIY Bird Feeder Kit – Supplies

While your supplies may vary based on the DIY bird feeder kit you choose these are the items I got to complete our project. Our kit suggested optional wood glue to help make the completed feeder a bit stronger but I didn’t have any and it seemed sturdy enough regardless! Still, you might want to keep that in mind while looking for your kit! Paints are also optional – a wooden bird feeder is perfectly fine in its natural state, though I highly suggest using some sort of protective weather coating if you want it to last!

• Bird Feeder Kit or plans/supplies if you’re really adventurous!
• Hammer
• Nails (if not included in your kit – ours included them)
• Weatherproofing coat

Optional

• Wood Glue
• Paint

Directions

1. Choose Your design! There are quite a few options available on Amazon. The design we chose is quite simple but there are more complicated options and even plans if you want to make something more elaborate! Don’t forget to order your weather shielding and paints if desired!
2. Eagerly await your packages!
3. Assemble your helpers. This is a great project to do with the kids! If they are too young to help use the hammer and nails they can help hold and organize the parts and learn about following the included instructions. Typically these instructions include photos so even kids who are too young to read can make some sense of them! If your child can follow Lego instructions then they a likely follow these!
4. After following the included instructions of your kit…or plan let your kids go wild with the painting. It’s likely that they will consider this the fun part. Once the paint dries add your weather shielding and allow it to dry.
5. Hang your feeder in an appropriate spot and fill it up!
6. Watch the birds and enjoy it!

How a DIY Bird Feeder Can Be A Learning Experience.

Those of us dealing with school closures are feeling the pressure when it comes to keeping the kids busy AND educated. There is no way that I can keep up with my kid’s teachers when it comes to schoolwork and while online learning is definitely helpful it can be hard to keep them interested in it for extended periods of time. I have found that interspersing more hands-on projects with online learning has been very helpful!

In that regard, little building kits like this DIY bird feeder kit are absolutely perfect! Sure it might seem a bit simple but it’s fun and learning to use tools and build things by hand is what I call an essential life skill (and a nice break from trying to figure out the math). Painting definitely counts as art and if you pick up a book on identifying backyard birds (or use an online website) I’m sure you can count it towards a science too!

The back of the wild bird seed bag we picked up even had a little chart showing which birds preferred which seeds. While I didn’t plan on them noticing this or even pointing it out, the kids were actually quite interested when they noticed and we wound up having a discussion about how different species prefer different seeds and the importance of varied ecosystems to support this. They were especially excited to recognize several of the listed species as once we have seen in the neighborhood before. If your assigning work to your kids having them, identify, list, and research the species who visit your feeder could be a really fun project!