Gardening Crafts and Planting Tips

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Coconut Bird Feeders

by Jane Lake

Here's how to make a natural bird feeder that will blend in with any garden landscape. You can fill it with a variety of foods for the birds.

Mixed bird seed in this coconut feeder attracted the bright little goldfinch, shown at left, within minutes of being set out in the yard. A pair of bluejays, with one shown at right, dropped in for lunch the next day, along with sparrows and chickadees.

If you'd like to attract orioles, use our recipe for oriole nectar but tempt them further by filling the bowl of a coconut feeder with half an orange, some cherries or banana chunks, nuts or suet. If the fruit is very ripe, you may also attract some butterflies to share the bounty.

Coconut Bird Feeder
Supplies:

• coconut
• 6 feet of household twine
• shower curtain ring or hook
• scissors
• drill with a small drill bit, or an awl
• hand saw or other tools to split open the coconut (see more details below)

Coconut Bird Feeder
Instructions

Open the Coconut
1. Do a Google search for 'open a coconut' and you'll find step-by-step photos, or even videos, that will show you a variety of ways to do this. The first step is to pierce at least one of the three darker spots on one end of the coconut to drain out the coconut milk. After that, one method suggests using the blunt, non-chopping side of a cleaver, or a similar implement, to tap all around the center of the coconut until it cracks open; in this way, you should get two fairly even sides to use.

If you're not concerned about saving the coconut milk or coconut meat for personal use later, you could also clamp the coconut in a vise and use a hacksaw or hand saw to cut it in half.

Once the coconut is open, remove the coconut meat, if desired - but do leave a little behind as many birds enjoy it.

Make a Hanger
2. Drill three, equally spaced holes around the rim of the coconut. Thread a 24 inch length of twine through one of the holes, bringing the ends together evenly. Starting near the hole, begin twisting the two strings together to make a single cord and temporarily knot them together at the top.

Repeat with the other two holes, then undo the original knots and knot all the strings permanently together at the end. Before you tighten the knot, make sure that all three strings are the same length so that the coconut will hang properly.

3. Hang Your Coconut Bird Feeder
Use a hook, or a shower curtain ring, to suspend the coconut bird feeder from a tree or large shrub. Ours is suspended on the edge of a large stand of lilacs.

Fill with bird seed and wait for the birds to find their new feeding station!

Alternative Coconut Bird Feeder Design:

After completing the bird feeder shown above, an alternative design occured to me. This one is made by cutting halfway through the coconut with a hand saw, then making another cut angling down to meet the first one, so that a natural roof remains over the feeding area to help keep the food dry.

Drill one hole through the top to thread a string through as a hanger - and you're done!