Turn A Plastic Lid Into A Smart Cover For Your Bird Feeder

Springtime showers and pop-up thunderstorms may create a relaxing ambiance for those of us indoors, but rain can also affect whether birds visit your feeder. While birds still need to eat during a storm, they might retreat to shelter or feed less frequently when it's raining. To help provide shelter, you can repurpose a plastic lid into a bird feeder cover, offering birds a refuge while keeping extra plastic out of the landfill.

This simple DIY only requires a few supplies. You'll need your bird feeder and a plastic lid, such as from a takeout container or old casserole dish. Choose a lid that's at least slightly wider than the base of the feeder so it'll be large enough to effectively shield birds and their food from rainwater. You'll also need a tool that can cut a hole in your plastic lid, like a drill, box cutter, or even just sharp enough scissors.

To create your bird feeder cover, carefully cut a small hole in the center of the plastic lid. Depending on its shape, you may want to cut two small notches on opposite sides of the lid — this way, rainwater can flow out instead of pooling on top and weighing down the feeder. Consider painting the lid to match your feeder, or opt for red to turn your yard into a hummingbird haven. You may need to lightly sand and prime the plastic before painting it,and even though the lid won't touch the food, use a paint that's safe for birds, like a non-toxic water-based acrylic paint. Once your cover is ready, thread the hook of your feeder through the hole you cut, allowing the lid to rest on top of the feeder.

Installing a cover on top of your bird feeder provides a range of benefits that could lead to more birds visiting your yard. For starters, the cover will help to keep the bird seed blend in your feeder dry. This is important because damp seeds pose a risk of mold and bacteria, which can be harmful to birds. Covers can also be particularly helpful for hummingbird feeders since they'll keep rainwater out of the nectar mixture and prevent it from getting too diluted.

This cover also essentially acts as a baffle, which is a common solution for squirrel-proofing your bird feeders. Baffles and bird feeder covers are also helpful in preventing swooping aerial attacks by birds of prey. Birds are more likely to spend time in a yard that they feel is safe from predators, so minimizing this threat could lead to more birds visiting your newly-covered feeder.

DIYing a bird feeder cover out of a plastic lid is an easy, sustainable way to improve the lives of your local birds while keeping extra plastic out of the trash. The beauty of this project is that you can use a wide range of items that are probably already taking up space in your house. And if you're not sure what to do with the leftover container you nabbed a lid from, there are a number of other ways to reuse plastic containers in your home and garden.