TO MAKE A PAPER PLATE BIRD FEEDER, YOU’LL NEED:
- paper plate
- wicker paper plate holder
- colored raffia or twine for hanging
- peanut butter
- bird seed
- cheerios
- hole punch
To start, we paired up a paper plate and a wicker paper plate holder. You can get these paper plate holders at the dollar store. They’re used to give a paper plate some support when you’re loading it up with food at a picnic. That’s exactly the purpose it’s serving today too. We’re giving the paper plate some support to hold the weight of the birdseed and any birds who come to nibble.
Then we punched three evenly-spaced holes around the edge of the plate.
We threaded a length of raffia through the hole, and then through a little space in the plate, and knotted it.
**NOTE: You will want to use more than one strand of raffia for each hole. After a big, fat squirrel hopped into the bird feeder, we had to strengthen ours and took it down. You need several strands of raffia, and you could even go a bit further, and reinforce each bunch of raffia with a length of fishing line hidden within.
After tying the raffia to the plates, we threaded Cheerios onto each length of raffia. This made the “hanger” pieces look pretty, and added an extra bonus snack to the feeder. Threading Cheerios is always a popular activity.
The next step was to prep the plate for the bird food.
We spread a layer of peanut butter all over the plate to give the birdseed something to stick to.
Then we dug our hands into the birdseed and sprinkled a generous layer of birdseed over the peanut butter.
I just want to say what a wonderful sensory experience it is to dig your hand into a bowl full of tiny seeds. Your children will love it!
We patted the birdseed into the peanut butter, and our bird feeder was ready for hanging.
Our paper plate bird feeder has been hanging in the yard for a couple of days now, and we’ve seen both birds and squirrels stopping by for a snack.
Enjoy, birdies! Summer is Here!
Isn't it just lovely!
