Plastic Bottle Finch Feeder

Finches are cute yellow birds. The males have some black on their heads and wings. These birds are very entertaining to watch. Let's get making!

Materials:

• 1 plastic bottle
• 1 key ring (with no keys on it)
• 1 binder clip
• string, wire (loose DIY electrical wire with rubber surrounding it), or yarn
• straight twigs or sticks
• nyjer or thistle seed

Tools:

• 1 screwdriver
• 1 nail, pin, or screw
• 1 nail cutter (straight and adult-sized)
• nailcutter case
• sandpaper

Choose the straightest of the twigs and use the nail cutter to cut them into pieces that can go the diameter of the largest parts of the bottle and still have finch-sized perches at both ends.

Poke mutiple holes. Each hole has to have another hole right on the opposite side. Each pair of holes will hold one stick.

You will now have to poke the holes for the finches to put their bills through to get at the nyjer or thistle. Poke them above the perches.

You will have to shave some of the thickest perches to make them match the diameter of the holes you drilled.

You can insert the perches now. The twigs should go in from one side of the bottle, then protrude out the other side with the two sections of each twig being a perch.

Make the hanger. This step is actually a compound step. Here are the individual steps that make up this step:

1. Take the ring that secured the lid when you first bought the bottle off the rim.
2. Tie two knots on each side of the ring (the knots should be exactly across the diameter of the ring). The wire should be longer than the diameter.
3. Put the ring back on the bottle with the wire facing up.
4. Connect the key ring to the binder clip and connect the key ring to the wire.

Warning: The inner edge of the ring may be sharp! Do not let kids under 5 years of age help with this step! Be careful on this step yourself!

Fill your new feeder with the nyjer or thistle. Then close the cap.

Hang your feeder under a tree. Make sure no hawks can see the feeder from above. If you have wild snakes, consider putting the feeder high in the tree and away from the trunk to prevent them from reaching the finches on the feeder.

You will have to refill the feeder when it is empty. When a new month is about to start, let the finches deplete the feeder and put it under running water. Then dry & refill. At the start of a new year, let the finches deplete it and then take it down. Disassemble and scrub each part under running water. Then, dry and refill.

We had no finches and the common birds came so I widened the holes with my scissors to offer sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and common bird mixes.

The thin electrical wire's insulation broke and the copper core corroded and snapped. The plastic hook also broke. Replaced the whole setup with aluminum hanger twisted around an aluminum hook