Bird feeder 3

This is a recipe for bird cake, I don't know any other name for it but it probably has one. Bird cake attracts waxeyes, chaffinches, sparrows, dunnocks, greenfinches and starlings. If you live in warmer climes (like the north island) you might get myna birds too.   

You will need:
1 part suet
1 part wild bird seed

Melt the suet over medium heat, when melted take off the heat and stir in the bird seed, you can add extra bird seed if you think it needs it. Pour into a plastic container and leave to set overnight. When it is set press it out of the container and put it on your bird table.

Bird feeder 2

This bird feeder is very simple, you just need a flat space and a dish.

Mix 100g sugar with 1l water, red food colouring is not essential but it makes it more attractive to birds. Pour the syrup into the dish, put it some where flat and wait for the birds. This feeder attracts Waxeyes, Bellbirds and Tui (I haven't had any Tui yet)

Bird feeders 1

Recently I have become very interested in birds, so I decided to encourage birds to come into our backyard. If you look up bird feeders they are either very expensive or very plastic. So I decided to make my own feeders inspired by the feeders you can buy.
The first one I made was quite simple, made for holding half an apple and designed to attract waxeyes.

To make a bird feeder like this you will need:
a square of wood approximately 200mm x 200mm and 20mm thick
a drill
a coping saw
a piece of string or rope
250mm no.8 wire

First take your piece of wood and draw a apple on it, make sure it is bigger than the apples you intend to put in it, I used a bit of Rimu that used to be part of our house, it was and still is the only piece of rimu I have ever seen that can be truthfully described as red not orange. Then drill a hole at the base of the stem then cut it out with the saw, I was very careful when cutting it out and I used the leftover apple shape to carve a little dish for Dad for his birthday.

Then drill a hole through the middle of the apple and check the wire fits in thte hole, if the wood gets wet the hole will shrink slightly and the wire might be hard to remove, then sand it, put an apple in it and hang it from a tree somewhere.  

 I think this waxeye is sick, it only flew a way when I was almost touching it.