Wine Bottle Bird Feeder
3 Materials
$5
1 Day
Medium
Easy weekend woodworking project using recycled materials.
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First of all, this will require a few tools so check out this video of it being made to see if it's something you'll be able to do! This can still be done with hand tools as well.
Grab a wine bottle and cut the bottom off by scoring it with a glass cutter. I made a little jig to make this easier by hot gluing the scoring tool to a board I can rotate the bottle around.
The measurements for this are relative to the size of the bottle. My back board was about 4 inches wide by 12 inches tall.
Next, feel free to add in a bit of style by cutting away the corners. This is optional.
Next you'll need to add a tray. This will be the same width as the backboard but sticks out about 3 inches with a bit of a lip to hold the bird seed. I used wood glue and rubber bands to clamp it together until the glue dried.
Now you can start cutting the wood to hold the bottle to the backboard. For this, find a drill bit that's slightly larger than the neck. You'll also need a drill bit that's the same size as the larger part of the bottle.
This is the drill bit I used for the larger hole.
Once you drill the holes, start cutting them out and refining the shape to look nice. I drew a half circle around the hole and sanded away the rough edged.
Lastly you need to attach the brackets to the backer board using wood screws and wood glue. It's easier to first glue the brackets on, let the glue dry, then predrill the holes and THEN drive in the screws. In the video I used super glue before putting in the screws. This is optional but since this will be outside, I wanted to try and seal the holes the best I could.
Now it's pretty much all done, just drill two holes where it will be mounted to a tree or post, then finish it with a couple coats of whip on poly and let it dry. After that you're ready to put the bottle in.
Now it's pretty much all done, just drill two holes where it will be mounted to a tree or post, then finish it with a couple coats of wipe on poly and let it dry.
You're all done! Now just place the bottle and fill with bird seed and enjoy. Of course, hang it before you place the bottle and fill with seed. I didn't demo hanging it up in the video but I still wanted to show it's self-filling properties.
Comments
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2 of 11 comments
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This is so very cute.I want to build one..
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I agree with Joe on this one. Also you may end up feeding a lot of squirrels unless you can put something like a stainless steel wrap on the trunk so they can't climb. It looks very nice though.
Frequently asked questions
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Would it work to just keep the bottle intact, removing it to refill it when empty? Seems that would keep the birdseed inside from getting wet. Or...maybe a rubber seal around the wooden lid, which does look pretty :)