Have you ever thought to decorate your outside trees with garland and ornaments for the winter rather than just your Christmas tree? Doing so could bring beauty to your yard the whole season and help out some local wildlife as well.
Bringing birds back to your yard in the winter can be simple. This woman shows four incredibly easy recipes for at home bird feeders that will have all sorts of wildlife flocking to your yard.
Bird Feeder Reef
For the first and the largest, she uses a bunt pan and a corn syrup mixture to hold all of the birdseed together. With a decorative ribbon tied through the middle to hold it up, it makes the perfect wreath. All the ingredients it took to create are more than likely laying around your home, especially if you have plenty of bird feeders already.
Corn syrup may seem like a questionable factor to add to birdseed, but the syrup is actually made from corn, something common in a bird’s diet. Not to mention, corn syrup is so stuck and hardened when dried out, it makes it perfect for holding something so large and fragile together.
Soon after this DIY crafter in the video put up the reef, captured footage of the birds coming along to enjoy the new treat. It’s such a calming scene on a slow winter day.
You may be inclined to use more natural ingredients, but stay away from honey.
Several websites and YouTube channels warn that honey can be very harmful to a bird’s simple diet. Peanut butter, corn syrup, even grease, are better options than honey. Plus the rest of these recipes and homemade feeders use these same ingredients so it’s easy to recreate the crafts again and again.
Apple and Orange Peanut Butter Treat
The second feeder that she makes starts out with apples and peanut butter, making it look more like an after school snack than something for the birds. She lays them all out on a cookie sheet and rolls them in the seed. After that, she hangs them on a strand of garland with dried oranges, but you could easily turn these into ornaments by tying a single ribbon through each one, similar to the way that she does in the fourth feeder.
Old Ceramic Pots
For the third feeder though, she really gets into crafting and puts to use any extra ceramic pots you have laying around. This is the only one that requires a drill and zero kitchen time, so if the garage is your happy place more than the kitchen- this one is for you.
The great thing about this one is not only is it sturdy, but you can leave it out year-round.
Combo Pack
For the last bird feeder, she combines a couple of ideas from the previous feeders. She uses a similar mixture and presses it into a muffin pan with individual ribbons rather than a cake pan with one large ribbon. In less than 5 minutes (not counting dry time) she has 12 perfectly formed ornaments for the evergreen trees outside. Or she could string them together to make another strand of garland with dried apples and oranges.
The final product is incredible and she made everything look so easy! Follow the link below to watch how to make all four bird feeders and hopefully bring some feathery friends to your own yard this winter.
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