Early Bird Diner Bird Feeder

Hang a restaurant in a tree or outside a window for the neighborhood birds to enjoy -- you can call it the Early Bird Diner Bird Feeder.

What You'll Need:

  • 1 half-gallon cardboard milk carton
  • White spray paint
  • Acrylic paint: blue, red, black
  • Clear acrylic gloss spray
  • Yellow dimensional paint
  • White key tag

Tools:

  • Craft glue
  • Paper clips
  • Paper punch
  • Pencil
  • Craft knife
  • Paintbrushes
  • Black fine-point marker

early bird diner bird feeder
Trace the window pattern onto all four sides of the carton.
(Step 2)

Step 1: Glue the top edges of the milk carton together, and clip them together with paper clips until the glue sets. Punch a hole in the center of the top edge. (Squeeze hard to punch through both layers.)

Step 2: Trace the window pattern onto all four sides of the carton. Ask a grown-up to use the craft knife to cut out the windows.

Step 3: In a well-ventilated area, spray-paint the carton white to make it easier to decorate. Let dry.

Step 4: Paint the top of the carton blue and the bottom red, leaving the columns between the windows white. When the paint has dried, use black paint and a small brush to paint stripes on the columns.

Step 5: Let dry, then finish with a coat of clear gloss spray. Let dry completely.

Step 6: With yellow dimensional paint, make dots around the top of each window and across the bottom of the windows and around the container. Let dry.

Step 7: Print the word "EAT" on the key tag. Slip the ring of the key tag through the hole in the top of the carton. Fill the bottom of the feeder with birdseed, and hang.

For more fun activities and bird-related crafts, check out:

About the Craft Designers

Bird Cafeteria Bird Feeder by Maria Birmingham, Karen E. Bledsoe, Kelly Milner Halls
Milk Carton Meal Bird Feeder by Maria Birmingham, Karen E. Bledsoe, Kelly Milner Halls
Water Hole Bird Feeder by Maria Birmingham, Karen E. Bledsoe, Kelly Milner Halls
Early Bird Diner Bird Feeder by Sharon Broutzas, Rice Freeman-Zachery, Connie Matricardi, Susan Milord, Lynnette Schuepbach, Kim Solga, Florence Temko