Sometimes the best thing about having bird feeders in your garden is sharing those moments of bird watching with your children. It is a wonderful opportunity to teach them about the wildlife that flies past your window as well as a nice time to spend sharing something beautiful with your kids. If this is something you want to do perhaps you also would like to make some of the bird feeders with them. Depending on the age of your kids this can be another sharing and learning opportunity. One of the feeders you could make is the finch bird feeders. They are a little more complicated than making the simpler platform feeders which are very simple, but not so hard that you could not construct one.

Since finches are such tiny birds what is used as a finch bird feeder is often a tube bird feeder. The first thing to do is to find all the materials that will be needed. Start with a narrow plastic tube. This can be something that was used as a medicine bottle, spice jar or soda pop bottle. Then you will need something to use as perches. The best thing to use for this will be doweling. Doweling are round pieces of wood. You will want them to be no wider than a quarter of an inch. This allows the birds to grab onto them easier. How long they are is completely dependent on the width of the tube you are using. On average each piece of dowel should be around six inches long. This measurement allows the perches to be a few inches long for the birds to sit on. It the tube you use is very wide you will need longer pieces of doweling. You will also need a small hook which has a screw at one end, a hot glue gun or strong glue, paint, using non toxic is a must and a drill with a few bits so there are ones that are big enough for the multiple purposes you will need them for.

Take the drill and make holes for the dowel to go into. Leave them longer on one side so the bird has a place to sit on the perch then glue them in place. Depending on how big the tube is you can make at least six perches by alternating them on all the sides. Use the screw hook to attach the top of the feeder to your tree. If you want to make it more attractive for your garden you can paint it. This is the simplest way to build finch bird feeders. You can do this with your children, having each of them build one to put outside their bedroom windows, so that they too can they watching the birds feed.