How to Make a Cheap Bird Feeder that Keeps the Squirrels Away

If you're into bird feeders but find that squirrels are still getting to the bird food, consider a cheap bird feeder solution from Instructables.com that can be made using a candy tin and a few other inexpensive and easy to find parts:

This device is so simple to make that it requires no specialist tools.

The bird feeding tray is held in a stationary position whilst the horizontally mounted baffle is free rotating so that a squirrel can't get a grip whilst the birds can freely enter the feeding area from the front.

Here's what the end product can look like:

All you need are:

Baffle -- "in this case the top of a solar powered garden light" but also "the top half of a large bottle could be used, the larger the better"

Bottle top/cap

Large metal bolt -- "preferably one which is longer than shown, but with not too much thread which hinders rotation"

Hexagonal nut and butterfly nut "that fit the bolt"

Several washers" taped together"

For instructions for how to put this inexpensive bird feeder together, including pictures, click the link below. And if you end up making one of these, please share your experience with the Tip Hero community by posting a comment below. And thanks for being a Tip Hero!

Small simple horizontally mounted squirrel resistant/proof bird feeder (hat tip Lifehacker)

Homepage photo credit: di the huntress

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Comments:

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too funny

Posted by anonymous on February 11, 2010 1:36 PM

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It may not keep the squirrels away, but is bound to give them hours of headaches trying to figure out how to bypass the system!

Posted by ldenny58 on February 11, 2010 1:48 PM

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What a great idea!

Posted by Sharon Franklin on February 11, 2010 6:09 PM

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Great idea. Put out a little something for the squirrels too.

Posted by anonymous on February 13, 2010 6:13 AM

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I am new to an apartment in the frigid northeast and wanted to feed birds not the biggest fattest squirrels I'd ever seen. A man at the hardware store advised me to mix powdered cayenne pepper with the seeds (in this case blackoil sunflower seeds). It seems birds have no taste buds and aren't bothered by it.
It also seems squirrels, like cats, hate icky paws and will lick it off, so I made a cayenne pepper infusion, drained it, and painted it all over the tree that the squirrels used.
They tried about 3 times then gave up eating even the refuse on the ground but still attack the suet/non cayenne feeder on the next tree.
Good Luck!

Posted by anonymous on February 13, 2010 7:48 PM

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what if the squirrels just go from tree top to tree top and go down to the seed instead of up??

Posted by anonymous on February 18, 2010 11:55 PM

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That's a lot of work to go through when all you have to do is add hot sauce to the seed. Birds can't taste it but the bushy-tailed tree rats hate it!

Posted by anonymous on February 24, 2010 9:55 PM

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Recently a tipster suggested mixing hot peppers and such to bird seed as a bird will not be bothered because they can't taste the burn but rodents will. What about the birds stomach?

Posted by Jim on February 26, 2010 3:41 PM

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Jim, have you ever seen bird food for parrots? It usually contains whole dried hot peppers. I've seen parrots devour them---they love them.

Posted by anonymous on March 12, 2010 10:05 AM

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