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I love this DIY bird feeder from a flower pot and a couple of terra cotta saucers!
I’m kinda in love with all things terra cotta this spring and when I saw instructions for this little bird feeder made from a terra cotta flower pot over at Bird’s and Blooms, I knew I would give it a try!
The Husband could have done this in an hour, but remember, he’s super busy building an arched tudor front door (I posted about that HERE). So I’m trying to take over some of my easier projects and do them myself! This one wasn’t exactly easy for me but The Husband assures me that it would have been easy for him! So whatever your level of DIY…it’s doable and possibly even easy!
Here’s what you need
DIY Bird Feeder from a Flower Pot
- 1 or 2-liter plastic water bottle, 3-1/2 inches in diameter***I used a 2 liter water bottle
- 6-1/2-inch clay pot
- 7-1/2-inch clay saucer***My top saucer was a bit smaller
- 9-1/2-inch clay saucer
- Eye bolt, 1/4 inch by 5 inches
- Two 1/4-inch washers***I didn’t use these
- Two 1/4-inch nuts to fit eye bolt
- 12 inches of lightweight wire***I didn’t use this
- 48 inches of picture-hanging wire
- Fishing swivel***Had to get this at Walmart
- Small tree branch, about 18 inches long
- I got everything at the Home Depot except the fishing swivel & the water bottle!
I didn’t read through the instructions before I started this therefore I didn’t soak my flower pot and saucers over night…you need to do this! Saturated terra cotta is easier to drill!
Mark your holes for drilling- you’ll need a masonry drill bit (1/4 “-according to Bird’s and Bloom) I don’t have any idea about the size of my bits, they were the only two masonry bits that The Husband had in his tool box!
Drill holes in the center of the saucers, adding a few drain holes in the larger saucer-
The flower pot will be your actual bird feeder, so these holes dispense the seeds as well as looking cute! When drilling terra cotta, make certain it’s saturated with water-drill very slowly, applying pressure–the pressure is much more important than the speed. If the drill bit starts to smoke, dip the pot in the water. (I have a battery operated drill so I touched the tip of the bit to the water to quickly cool it. I had to do this a lot while drilling BUT DON’T do this if using an electric drill for the love of pete!)
***This process is slllloooowwww. It killed my arm and hands, I had to take a break and in the end, The Husband had to drill a couple of holes for me***
Also drill a hole in your stick…
Your bottle will act as a seed reservoir- press bottom into flower pot and mark just below the top of pot…cut off top of bottle with scissors-
Now using a marker, line up and mark the holes to let the seeds out. The bottle holes should line up with the holes in the flower pot…Using an exacto knife or scissors cut out the holes…this didn’t turn out looking neat 🙂
cut or drill a hole in the bottom of the bottle…
Screw your eye bolt through the bottle–flower pot–saucer & stick…(I had to go back and make my drilled holes a bit bigger to accommodate the eye bolt)
Attach wire to the eye bolt…
fish the wire through the hole in the smaller saucer and attach one end of the fish swivel to the top of the wire. Then attach a small loop of wire to the other end of the fish swivel. (Hang the feeder with the small loop)
Fill the seed reservoir (water bottle) with seed and hang your feeder!!!
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Julia @cuckoo4design says
April 8, 2013 at 10:13 pmHa, didn’t know that about saturating the terra cotta first.
What a great idea!
Robin says
April 9, 2013 at 7:20 amJulia, I think it keeps your drill bit from burning up 🙂
home builders springfield mo says
April 10, 2013 at 4:08 amBird thinks they are on vacation with that beautiful bird feeder!
—–
Rose
Robin says
April 10, 2013 at 7:29 amRose,I’m so happy they seem to like it! So far it’s the Cardinals that have chosen this feeder over my others! xo
Julie Garmon says
April 10, 2013 at 7:39 amTell The Husband I have a message from his BFF. I showed him this post last night. He said, “My BFF needs to get a diamond tipped drill bit.”
🙂
We love this idea and had so much fun reading it together. I want one too!!!! Mike’s BFF wanted to know why you didn’t go ahead and use the washers. XO
Robin says
April 10, 2013 at 5:45 pmJulie!!! Because I was putting it together and thought: what are these silly little things good for anyway? I can leave these out…hummmmmmmm. So far it hasn’t fallen apart without the washers-tell Ricky to whip one up and I’m going to look for a diamond tipped drill bit!!!! That sounds awfully exciting…diamond tipped!!!
Pam says
April 11, 2013 at 9:27 amSee, I would not have known about soaking the pots. This is such a cute idea.
Robin says
April 11, 2013 at 4:08 pmHi Pam…I soaked my pots for a couple of hours which helped but the longer the better I think!!! xo
Vanessa says
April 12, 2013 at 8:20 amHey , this is a lovely project that will be featured tomorrow or today at diyncrafts. We’ll use the finished picture review this project and place a huge link at the end of the post!
Keep doing awesome tutorials!
Vanessa
Tonia Morrell says
April 13, 2013 at 10:07 amWhy not seal the terra cotta Potts so they no longer absorb the water when it rains? That way u wouldn’t have to worry about drilling drainage holes or worrying about the seeds getting wet.. just a thought.. 🙂
Robin says
April 13, 2013 at 4:40 pmTonia, that would work! The only thing I would be concerned about is the safety of the sealer on the birdseed. Probably fine! I think you’d still have to drill drainage holes because when it rains the water would pool in the lower saucer…I’ll look into the ingredients in a sealer…good idea friend ~ Thank you! xo
Beverly Hulick says
May 9, 2013 at 5:58 pmWe are making this but can’t figure out how the bottle, that is not flush with the pot, allows the seed to come out. It seems to drop into between the pot and the bottle as we cannot find a bottle that fits flush. Any help or what are we doing wrong?
Robin says
May 9, 2013 at 6:16 pmBeverly, I tried several bottles and ended up getting a 1 liter which fit flush at the bottom but does gap as the pot get wider. My birds can get seed easily out of the bottom half of the flower cut out but I haven’t seen a bird stick his beak into the top cut out circles on the flower…I’m thinking about removing the bottle and putting seed directly in the pot and just adding seed more often, I have birds constantly at the feeder, (I’ll post more pics!) so they are getting enough seed to come back!!! Good luck with the feeder! xo
Spencer says
June 17, 2013 at 11:09 amAw such a cute idea! Love the idea of placing a branch underneath for the birds to perch on!
Robin says
June 17, 2013 at 4:08 pmand Spencer, they love the branch too!
Aimee @ Violet Femme says
July 10, 2013 at 11:42 amGreat idea, love it!
Janet Stockbridge says
April 5, 2014 at 12:01 amRobin,
I read an idea for making holes in plastic bottles a little easier was to fill with water, freeze the water & then make your holes. I haven’t tried it yet –as I don’t usually plan that far ahead!. but is looked to work pretty good on their project.
Robin says
April 5, 2014 at 11:35 amJanet, what a great idea!!! Thanks so much for the tip! xo
Hazel says
December 5, 2015 at 10:20 amYou can make holes in the bottle by sticking a hot glue gun to it.
Robin says
December 6, 2015 at 6:30 amwhat a great idea Hazel! xo
Sharon H says
September 20, 2015 at 9:24 amHere it is September 2015, and I am just now seeing this…. I love it! My thought was, is the bottle really necessary? I’m thinking probably not, but an easier way to drill those holes so they’d line up would be to pack the bottle portion with wet sand. It would stabilize it and not wobble around like frozen water might. Just a thought.
Robin says
September 20, 2015 at 1:41 pmSharon, great idea! ox
Tim says
December 5, 2015 at 8:48 amWhy use the plastic water bottle, won’t seeds get trapped between this and the inside of the pot ?
This is a cool feeder…
Robin says
December 6, 2015 at 6:31 amTim, you can absolutely do it without the water bottle…after having mine up for a year I cut the water bottle out! thanks for the observation!
Kelly Hinman says
October 29, 2016 at 2:33 amWhat is the need for the water bottle? Seems you can put seed directly into pot….
Robin says
October 30, 2016 at 2:11 pmYou absolutely can…I think the water bottle was intended to keep the seed dry but eventually I took it out!