Learn how to build a simple DIY popsicle stick bird feeder that you can hang from your tree. Your kids will love designing the bird feeder and then watch birds fly over to enjoy the food!
With spring just around the corner, we are hearing more and more birds happily chirping outside. I am always looking for “pets” for my kids because they are such animal lovers. But since we do plan to travel quite a bit in the summer, it would be challenging to have a zoo at my house.
The next best thing is to then feed the birds so that my kids can look at them out the window! We bought a bird feeder at our old house and the kids loved it. At first we didn’t get any birds, but once we got a couple to come, apparently they told all their friends and we got a whole bunch of regular visitors everyday.
The store-bought bird feeder didn’t make it through our move, so we decided to make our own instead! This DIY popsicle stick bird feeder craft is easy to make for the kids, and it turns out to be a great engineering challenge. It turned out to be a great spring STEM activity for preschoolers, kindergartners, and elementary school kids.
You will be amazed at what your kids come up with for their craft stick bird feeders. You may just need to help them with the glue gun and use safety precautions. We ended up with 2 different bird feeder designs and they are both hanging in our trees waiting for birds to come!
How to Make a Bird Feeder with Popsicle Sticks
Supplies:
Instructions:
Build the Base of the Bird Feeder
1. Place the popsicle sticks next to each other. How many you use will depend on the size of your popsicle sticks. When you place a popsicle stick perpendicular to the bottom ones and the ends of the stick on top should stick out.
2. Glue a craft stick across the bottom of the base sticks with a hot glue gun. Repeat with another stick across the top. These two sticks will help hold the base sticks together.
3. For the next layer, glue a popsicle stick perpendicular to the two sticks you glued on the base in the previous step. Repeat for the other side.
Create the Perch for the Bird Feeder
4. If you want to build a perch for the birds, glue a pair of popsicle sticks to the middle of the popsicle sticks. You can do one perch or two, up to you.
Glue the popsicle sticks on the top and bottom outer edges.
Finish Assembling the Walls of the Bird Feeder
5. Continue stacking and gluing the popsicle sticks around the outside to form the four walls, alternating directions each layer. Stop when you reach the desire height for your bird feeder.
Attach the Twine
6. Cut 4 pieces of twine that are the same length. Tie each piece to the corner of the popsicle stick bird feeder. Make sure you tie them at the same spot for all the corners to evenly distribute the weight.
Use hot glue to secure the knots to the popsicle sticks.
7. Gather the ends of the 4 twine pieces and tie a knot.
You are done assembling your popsicle stick bird feeder! Find the perfect place outside and hang your bird feeder. I recommend hanging it somewhere you can see from inside the house so that your kids can watch the birds enjoy the bird food.
Alternative Popsicle Stick Bird Feeder Design
My daughter wanted to make a bird feeder with a different design, so here is an alternative way of building a popsicle stick bird feeder.
The biggest difference is that you are going to tilt the popsicle sticks in the base slightly so that they form a diamond. I also left out the perches for this design.
Otherwise, you can follow the same directions as the box bird feeder above to build the walls.
As for adding the twines, you want to tie them to the popsicle sticks at the two narrower corners instead of all four corners.
This diamond bird feeder also hung beautifully off a tree branch! My kids are so excited about all the birds that are going to come!
Will the Bird Food Spill Out of the Bird Feeders?
Yes, the bird food can spill out of the popsicle bird feeders. If you look at the popsicle stick bird feeder from the side, you can see that there are gaps between the sticks. Especially if you are with bird food with small seeds, then it’s possible for the little seeds to fall out of the sides.
That said, simply hold the craft stick bird feeder upright and make sure when you hang it up that it’s nicely balanced and you don’t have an issue with the bird food spilling out.
Final Thoughts on the DIY Popsicle Stick Bird Feeder
My kids absolutely loved building the popsicle stick bird feeders. We spent hours discussing and trying different designs and they had so much fun bringing their designs to life.
If you have older kids, you can challenge to build a bird house instead of a simple bird feeder. What’s the difference between a bird house and bird feeder? A bird house can also act as a shelter for the birds and many birds build nests inside bird houses. So you will need to build an enclosed structure with a hole for the birds to go in and out.
Hope you get lots of visitors for your bird feeder!
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This helped a lot thank you