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To make a plastic soda bottle into a bird feeder is quite easy. Actually, making it attractive while it hangs from a tree branch is the hard part. All the materials you will need to make it are: a plastic soda bottle, a piece of string long enough to make the bird house hang in the position you want it, a knife, drill or hammer and nail, and bird seed.

The first step is to wash the bottle out with water, so that it will not be sticky. Peel the label off the bottle because it will look better with out it. Either drill or use the hammer and a big nail to punch a hole in the lid of the bottle. Then thread one end of your string through the hole. Tie a big knot at the end of the string that is on the inside of the bottle lid. Test your knot to make sure that it will not pull through or break when you pull on it.

With the knife, cut a window in the bottle. The window should not be too big, or too small. If it is too big, the bottle will not be very sturdy and when birds land to feed from it, the base of the bottle will bend spilling bird seed everywhere. If the hole is too small, it will be harder for birds to find the entrance to get to the seed. A good guide would be to cut from the base of where the label was, around half the diameter of the bottle. Then cut upwards finishing at where the top where the label was. You could also cut two smaller windows on opposite sides the bottle, make them the same height as the label was, but each a quarter of the bottle's diameter only.

Now we will talk about decorating the bird house. Of course you can use any design or decorative materials that you like, just make sure that they are non-toxic because the birds will peck at it while they are feeding. Some ideas are to smear glue over the outside and cover it with pieces of tree bark, paper mache and paint it, or glue and tie straw around it to make it look like a straw hut.

Finally, screw the lid with the string back onto the bottle and tie it to the branch where you want it to hang. Make sure that it hangs in a place where cats will not be able to bother the birds, and at least 5 feet off the ground. Fill it with bird seed up to the base of your window cut into the bottle, and watch the birds discover how to use it and enjoy the free food.

Learn more about this author, Mark Walker.
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