DIY A Natural Bird Feeder With The Help Of These Common Yard Scraps

If feeding wild birds brings you joy, imagine how much extra joy there is in creating a feeder for your feathered visitors from scratch. Forget store-bought platform feeders or basic trays — this DIY, one-of-a-kind creation uses things that might otherwise be considered yard waste, such as twigs, vine cuttings, or tall grasses. The design incorporates finishing touches based on what you can forage — sprigs of pine and miniature pine cones for example. Perhaps the best traits of this feeder are that it's all-natural and costs nothing to make, except a little of your time and love. (of course, if you don't have all the materials, you can buy grapevine spheres online or at craft stores, supplementing with the natural found objects you do have).

The design for this feeder offers room for customization: Sphere or wreath, large or small, handle or no. It's just the type of feeder that'll get birds flocking to your yard: To the birds, it looks natural because it is natural. And there are plenty of footholds for nuthatches and other birds who don't always just stand on platforms or perches to feed. Nuthatches seem to defy gravity, able to walk upside down on the underside of tree branches, so this type of feeder structure suits their general cling-to-things lifestyle.

To start, look around your yard for thin, flexible vines, reeds, or branches. We're talking grapevines, weeping willow branches, or English ivy vines. Snip or collect strands a few feet long, then remove the leaves by sliding a vine between your fingers and thumb. Make a circle about the size of a volleyball, twisting the vine around itself a few times to get it to stay in a circle. If necessary, use binder clips or clothespins to hold things together temporarily as you work. Make four circular wreaths of the same size this way; each one should have about three rounds of vine in it. 

Fit one vine ring inside the other so they're at 90-degree angles to one another, then add the other two, spacing them out to create a hollow sphere form. Use small bits of vine, twine, or flexible dried grasses to secure them together. Use shorter bits of vine or grasses to make the bottom third into a basket to hold seeds or nuts. Decorate the top by adding sprigs of pine and miniature pine cones, Spanish moss for nesting materials, red holly berries, or whatever else strikes your fancy. If you have thin grapevine left over, loop them into a DIY grapevine hummingbird swing that complements your homemade bird feeder. One caveat: Fresh-cut grapevine will shrink as it dries, so leave a little wiggle room at junctions.

Add a large loop of jute twine to hang your feeder from a structure such as a shepherd's hook, which is a clever way to hang more than one bird feeder in a limited space. Fill the feeder with your favorite bird seed variety, sit back, and enjoy the view.