Turn a Shower Caddy into a Birdfeeder

Future Earth friend Cary had a creative idea for reusing an old shower caddy. She filled it with birdseed and stuck it on the outside of her window. This is a particularly great idea for apartment dwellers without a yard of their own. It also prevents window collisions by alerting the birds that there is a surface there.

Cary says I bought the plastic shower caddy at Target for the shower. The suction cups were large, but they overlapped the grout lines around the tiles. Of the four cups only two held suction at a time, because of the overlap. The shower caddy was thrown into the closet until i had a brainstorm- attach it to the window for the birds! The plastic dish holds a large quantity of brid seed. There is plenty of room for the smaller birds to sit in the food and the lip around the edge is also a nice place for them to sit. The four suction cups provide adequate strength to support bluejays and cardinals (at our old apartment) and doves (our current apartment). The birds do not mind that there is no cover and rain is not a problem since the water runs out of the holes in the botttom.

Last year the excess birdseed fell to the ground below our first floor window creating a nice sunflower garden. This year the feeder is located over a porch so there is a little more cleanup involved and there will be no sunflowers. Some seed does get trapped around the suction cups, but it is easy to clean. In the past I have not had much of problem with seed sticking to the window, but right now i am using a song bird mix that is very sticky and it makes clean up much harder.

The Audobon Society website says Bird feeding can benefit birds and also provides great bird watching from your own backyard. The obvious time to feed birds is in winter when natural food supplies are scarce; however, additional species visit feeders during the spring and fall migrations, and also during summer while nesting.

To keep birds coming back to your feeders in any season provide them with the following three essential elements:

* Variety of quality seed.
* Fresh water for drinking and bathing.
* Ample cover, preferably provided by native plants. Native plants also provide potential nesting sites and a source of natural food.