Homemade bird feeder from a plastic bottle.
Remember, how else in your childhood are teachers, andthen the teachers diligently instilled in us a love for the lesser brothers? We willingly made avian feeding troughs on the lessons of labor and did not lazy regularly fill them, taking care of the birds in the cold season. Years passed and high technologies came to our life, but progress did not touch the variegated bird houses. In winter, they still need support, which is now almost worthless. The simplest bird feeder from a plastic bottle hanging outside the window or in the yard is made in just a couple of minutes, and it costs almost without cost. Can we make bird feeders from plastic bottles right now? Yeah why not! 
But before you start the master-class with instructionson how to make a feeder from a plastic bottle, we just barely touch on the topic of the value of this craft. Primary benefit is obvious - this is practical help to birds suffering from cold shortages from nutritional deficiencies. It is for this reason that birds fly to cities in winter, closer to people. But in the pedagogical aspect, the manufacture of this craft is of value. Involving a child or a teenager in the process, we form a full-fledged personality - we put into the consciousness of the future member of society the notions of virtue, responsibility, love for living nature. And making birds' dining rooms from polyethylene bottles with their own hands is much more interesting than playing empty virtual games.
Materials and components
Remember, before the bird houses were made fromplywood, wooden brusochkov, milk packages and other improvised snacks? This is all because then we simply did not have PET bottles from the soda and other liquids. The appearance of a soft plastic container will only simplify our task. We will make a bird's canteen from bottles on our own, using step-by-step methodical schemes. Together with the kids, of course. The children just like this lesson. In addition to PET containers from 1.5 liters and more, we will also be useful: disposable plastic spoons and wooden skewers (rods), strong ropes and scraps of nylon rope. Acrylic paints (plastic) or self-adhesive film for decorating the feeder can be taken as desired. From the instrument you just sewed, scissors and a clerical knife. Foil, rustling candy wrappers and "crispy" cellophane use at a minimum - an excess of such decor can deter small birds. Feeder-tower from a conventional PET bottle The first step-by-step diagram shows a beautiful bird's dining-room. To make such of plastic bottles the simple tools everyone can. In the winter it will be a place of forest bilberry feeding, and in the summer heat a drinking bowl for birds from the stuffy city quarters. 
Get to work? So:
- Cut the tip of the bottle with your cutting tools: scissors, a clerical knife - than you are accustomed to use. This is the future roof of our tower;
- The height of the remaining bottom should be reduced approximatelya third, and then cut through the hull of the "house" laz the necessary size. The small size of the access door allows access only to small birds - bullfinches, tits, etc .;
- Cutting out the window, do not rush to cut off the extra "tongue" of plastic. It can be bent outward, forming a convenient bridge for landing;
- Handle the details of the future feeder with decorative materials (paints, beautiful stickers, film, etc.). Fig. 1 will help you with the ideas of design.
Feeder for tits from a plastic bottlealmost ready. It remains only to hang the lower part of the house on the braid, having sewn with 2 holes in the workpiece. Then stretch the ribbon from the inside through the top from the bottle, before making a hole in its cork. Fig. 1 will help you in this. Hang your author's birdhouse from a plastic bottle on a tree branch in the park and put food in it. Guests will not force themselves to wait too long! The original bunker feeder for bullfinches The second picture will introduce you to an even simpler idea. The peculiarity of this feeder from plastic parts is that it does not require too frequent filling due to the bunker feed tank. Yes, and make such a bird feeder from plastic containers is nowhere easier - the bottle does not even have to be cut. But what should I pay special attention to in Fig. 2, so this is the width of the neck of the future bird's canteen. The more free it is, the more convenient it will be for you to add food. So: 
- Take any plastic bottle with a wideneck (for example, a liter of milk) and pierce it through with wooden skewers along the holes indicated by the awl. Skewers should stick out from both sides - these are the landing pegs for incoming birds;
- Make several such punctures at different heights so that the birds do not interfere with each other, if on arrival they settle on all the pits at once;
- It remains to make holes through which bullfincheswill pull loose feed from the trough. A diameter of 0.5-1 cm will be enough (if grain and cereals are poured into the hopper). Dyrochki can be burnt over the pergolas with a hot nail or gently cut with manicure scissors.
It is interesting! Look how successfully the skewers of the bunker feeder are replaced with wooden spoons in Fig. 3. The principle of construction remains the same, but the size of the aft window can be increased, and the planting of birds will be much more convenient. Wooden spoons can be replaced with disposable plastic. And do not be afraid that a lot of food will wake up to the ground. It's enough to drown the snow under the bird feeder, so that the birds prick all the falling food. 
The original bird feeder is ready forUninterrupted service for the benefit of our feathered friends. It remains to note that the transparent PET bottle, taken as a basis, allows you to see from afar the percentage of filling the hopper with food. But the opaque feeder will have to be checked manually each time. A large bird feeder and birdhouses In general, a feeder from a plastic bottle is able to feed at once a whole pack of hungry tits, if made from a five-liter canister for bottled water. It's not just a bird's canteen, it's a real restaurant for birds. The more interesting it will be to observe the birds arriving here to feed in the winter. In Fig. 4 shows the options for this product: 
- You can hang the canister vertically, cutting from all sides aft windows with visors;
- And you can fix a five-liter bottle horizontally, carving out a bird pavilion with a roof;
- Or just cut the top of the bottle and make a windrower-tunnel in a horizontal arrangement.
However, you can have your own originalideas of execution. But after all, it is possible to make a bottle of ordinary PET not just a bird's canteen. You can get an excellent birdhouse from a plastic bottle if you use opaque containers (see Figure 5). In winter, it can also be used as a trough. 
And in the spring in it, it is likely to get serious lodgers. The main thing is to have time to hang a birdhouse from a plastic bottle higher to the arrival of starlings.
How to treat visitors?
In winter, birds are not fastidious. They will gladly cater for all cereals and seeds, grains of oats and wheat, bread crumbs, dried millet and millet. Use wet forages should not be - in the cold they quickly freeze and become inaccessible. But the loose feed is optimal for winter feeding bullfinches and tits, if you decide to make a bird feeder for the type of bunker. You can use pieces of fat, but they are usually hung on a string or put on tree branches. Make a few birdhouses for birds and tell the children about how important it is !. And it will be interesting to the beginning naturalists to observe the tits and other forest birds flying to the feeding trough. Do all of them know the children or are they still to be told about someone else? It is possible that not every visitor will know you. The more interesting and informative will be your hikes to the bird feeder along with the child. The main thing, do not forget to regularly replenish the food reserves, since we have started this business. Feathered will get used to and will wait for you every day. And in the summer they will certainly thank you for caring with loud trills in different ways. In the park and the park, by the river and on the forest paths. Good luck! On our site you can find other handmade articles made of plastic bottles, for example, there are wonderful articles on how to make an almost real palm tree or vase from a polyethylene bottle.
