DIY Wire Basket Bird Feeder Tutorial

Recently I’ve been getting into putting out bird feeders in my yard.

My mom and grandma put out hummingbird feeders since I can remember, so I took up that tradition years ago. (If you have never put out a hummingbird feeder, give it a try… it’s easy and hummingbirds are so much fun to watch!) I started putting out finch feeders last year when both sides of our family went to a winery hosting a Mother’s Day lunch. The winery had set up finch feeders on the outside perimeter of the picnic tables, and dozens of yellow finches would swoop in and feed as we were eating our lunch. Impressed by the show, I decided to do the same in my yard, and almost a year later, I too have dozens of finches coming to my yard to visit my feeders. But beyond that, I haven’t had much luck attracting any other types of birds to the feeders I’ve set out. We have all sorts of different varieties of birds, and I have set out a variety of mixed seed and feeders, but neither have attracted much interest. So I decided to get creative…

I’ve had these three-tier kitchen wire baskets in our shop since we moved into our new house. Our ceilings are much higher here than they were in our old house, so I would have to hang them with an extension chain if I wanted to use them, and I just haven’t been able to make it work. I figured I could use them as a plant hanger or something of the sorts, but never got around to doing it. I was looking at them a few days ago, and it made me think of a picture I’d seen a while back of a single wire basket that someone had put a bowl and some bird food in. I thought, if it worked for one basket, why not three?

Here’s a picture of the tiered wire baskets I’m talking about…

I also have a bunch of old plates and bowls I’ve been saving to use under flower pots, so here’s what I had to work with:

I gathered it all up and took it all outside where I thought a wire basket bird feeder like this might get some business from the birds. I decided to just set up one feeder for now, and if it worked well, I’d set up the other one in a different spot.

Almost all the birds that come to my yard this time of year frequent my pomegranate trees, so I decided to try it out there:

I filled the bowl on top with birdseed out of another feeder I had hanging in the yard that hadn’t attracted a lot of business:

After I filled the bowl and still had a little bit of seed left, so I just dumped it out in the yard. My chickens were only too happy to clean it up for me!

Initially I was just going to put an empty plate in the middle tier to catch any birdseed that might fall out of the top tier, but then I remembered that certain birds like orioles like citrus fruit. I decided to slice up an orange and put it on the plate. What’s the worst that can happen? Ants? Maybe they’ll attract the birds! 🙂