Have fun making this quick and easy bird feeder for the smaller birds visiting your home.

Warblers, sparrows and finches will all enjoy this snack to energize them in their busy nest- building.

You will need:

2 plastic lids (smaller, 250-gram yogurt containers are a good size)

1 large nail

A hammer

A good long length of string

Several old washers (or nuts or bolts)

1 old doughnut (or bagel)

You can use any plastic or metal lids that are similar in size to a doughnut, that is, about 9 centimetres in diameter.

First hammer the nail through the centre of a lid, as you see in Figure 1.
(Ask an adult to help here, if you haven't done any hammering before).

Do your hammering on top of a piece of scrap wood so it won't damage the floor. Or, even better, do your hammering on the ground outside.

Wiggle the nail afterwards and pull it out.

Follow the same method again with the other lid.

Next (see Figure 2 of the diagram), tie the end of a long string to a weight. Metal washers are used here, but you can use nuts and bolts instead.

Thread the string's other end through the hole of one lid, then through the hole of the doughnut, and through the second lid.

Then thread it through another washer.

You can add an extra washer for weight if the feeder is swinging around too much in the wind.

Finally, tie a knot here to secure the whole thing together. See Figure 3 of the diagram.

Tie the free end of the string to a high branch. One nice thing about this bird feeder is that it is squirrel-free!

Adjust the feeder to about 2 metres off the ground, so nobody will bump into it.

Optional: Throw the rest of the string over a high branch and tie its free end to the nearby tree trunk. This will let you lower the feeder down to replace the doughnut later.

It might take some time but once the birds notice your feeder, they will come to feed again and again.

The top plastic lid protects the doughnut from getting soggy from the weather but you should check it every other day and replace the doughnut if necessary.

TheStar.com - Life - Doughnut bird feeder

Follow the links in the article (click link) for pdf diagrams of the feeder.

Cool idea! Only trouble is, old doughnuts are hard to find around this house! <burp>