An Adventure in Backyard Winter Birding

By Katie Siech, Environmental Programs Associate

This winter, while we’re all overcoming the challenges of a pandemic, I recommend attracting birds to your backyard by setting up multiple bird feeders with various seeds and a birdbath. The benefits will be mutual.

While my family tries to keep birds coming to our yard throughout the whole year, I thought it would be a fun project for my preschooler to help make a bird feeder out of the gourds we grew in our vegetable garden. Making bird feeders out of gourds can be as simple as cutting a freshly picked gourd in half, scooping out the seeds, and filling it with bird feed (including the seeds from the gourd). It can also be more complex, which, of course, is what my four-year-old insisted. Gourds require drying times that vary from one to six months, depending on size. We had a dried gourd from last year that was perfect.

Sanding gourd to remove weathering

To begin, we started sanding the dried gourd to remove mold from the surface. How gourds weather can be pretty; however, we decided to sand it off in case we wanted to paint it or stain it.

We then pulled out our power tools. As it turns out, our Dremel was perfect for drilling holes, shaping, and fine sanding the openings for birds. However, you can also use sandpaper and a rotary tool if those are readily available to you. After shaping the gaps for birds to access their food, we drilled small holes near the bottom and stuck kabob-sticks through the gourd. These act as perches for birds. There are many ways to make the perches, but this seemed to be the quickest and easiest. We then drilled a hole near the top of the gourd to tie a hanger through. As you can see (below), our gourd was ready to decorate.

At this point, we could have painted or stained our bird-feeder for special effects. However, my four-year-old was excited to use the glue gun for the first time, so she decided it was time we glued acorns to the gourd. She carefully pulled out all the best acorns from her collection, and we added our decorations. I added finishing touches by gluing the perches in place and further sanding dried glue (below). For longer-lasting bird feeders, you can use an outdoor varnish to seal it from the elements. The final product was a fun lesson for my preschooler in using tools (with supervision) and why it’s important to feed birds in the cold months of the year. Immediately after filling, she and I enjoyed seeing chickadees, cardinals, and woodpeckers.

Pro Tip: Recent studies have shown that attracting many bird species to a bird feeder can increase the likelihood of transmitting pathogens from bird to bird. One way to counter this is to fill bird feeders with a feed specific to a few birds and another feeder with a different kind of feed. In this manner, this can still bring diversity to your home while ensuring the birds’ health.