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My 2 1/2 year old loves watching birds and neighbors from our dining room table. She thinks I command them and asks me to make more of them show up. About a month ago she got to visit my husband’s work and got a plastic birdhouse. She was so excited about it that we hung it up by it’s two little suction cups right away. Then she proceeded to run around the house yelling “come here birds” in hope of attracting them. About 30 minutes later, it fell and broke. It wasn’t pleasant for any of us, but it inspired me to make this popsicle stick bird feeder.
I wanted to make a replacement with my daughter, but I wanted to use what I already had around the house. After a little research I realized that I didn’t want to make a bird house, but just a bird feeder. If you aren’t bird feeding savvy either, check out the difference here. Since my feeder wasn’t going to be a house that needed to protect from the elements, I was able to use just popsicle sticks, glue, and a leftover baby food lid.
How to Make a Popsicle Stick Bird Feeder With Your Toddler:
Supplies:
- Popsicle sticks
- Hot glue gun
- Elmer’s glue
- Baby food lid
Prep:
I wanted to give my daughter complete creative freedom with this, but I also wanted it to be functional. So, what I did was create a solid base that she could build off of. To do this, I used a hot glue gun. I started by gluing 8 popsicle sticks together to create a square. Then I added two more across the top to reinforce. Lastly, I glued a baby food jar lid in the middle as a place to hold the bird seed.
Creating:
Now came the fun part. I gave my daughter a bottle of Elmer’s glue and let her add popsicle sticks to the base I had made. She squeezed the glue on and attached whatever color stick she asked for. I expected sticks every which way, but she actually followed the pattern I didn’t realize I had set when I put those two supporting sticks. She built up what was basically walls. I showed her where she needed to put the glue when the popsicle sticks didn’t touch the glue she expected them to, but besides that I was very hands off. Part way through, we took a break to let the glue dry, so the sticks would stop sliding everywhere.
The next day we started again. Now all my daughter wanted to was build up one wall. I let her do that until the sticks were starting to slide around again. At that point we called it done and let it dry again.
Did My Popsicle Stick Bird Feeder Work?
Once it was dry, it was time to put it in action and fill up the lid with bird seed. I placed the bird feeder on the corner of our deck railing, but you could add string to hang it if that works better for you. We have carefully watched it, but so far we have had no bird visitors. I think our garden on the other side of the yard is too tasty and a toddler yelling “birds birds, come here birds” probably doesn’t help much either. I’m not sure how well the colored popsicle sticks will hold up to the rain so I will probably only put it out during the day.
Even if we never get any birds it was lots of fun making this with my daughter. I hope you have just as much fun making one. Be creative and use what you have. I used colored popsicle sticks, but you could use plain ones and paint it afterwards too. Let me know in the comments if you have any tips on attracting birds. Happy bird watching!
