How To Make a Glass Bottle Bird Feeder

This is a simple and beautiful project.
Rated -- Easy for beginners.

Materials List
• 1 glass bottle, such as a wine bottle
• 1 glass plate (we used a salad plate)
• 1 1” split ring pipe hanger
• 1 piece of landscape fabric about 2” X 2”
• 8” of wire such as picture hanging wire
• 1 cork for your wine bottle
• 1 plant hook for a tree or fence (your choice)


Tools List
• 1 tube of outdoor glue for glass (such as E-6000 or Clear-Weld)
• 1 Sharpie Pen
• 1 1/2” diamond core bit or 5/8” diamond core bit
• 1 drill, drill press or rotary tool (such as Dremel)


Optional
• Decorative stencil
• glass paints
• paint brush


This decorative glass bottle bird feeder is a good project for beginners. It’s easy to make. You'll drill 2 holes in the glass bottle and 2 holes in the plate. Glue them together. That’s it!

Let’s get started.

You’ll find glass plates, wine bottles and other decorative bottles at garage sales, flea markets, dollar stores and local thrift shops. The wine bottle was given to us by a family member. We found the replica antique milk bottle and the decorative fish bottle at a local home goods store, At Home formerly known as Garden Ridge. Both were on sale and we paid $2 apiece for them.

We chose bottles that were already decorative but there are endless possibilities if you choose to use decorative stickers, or if you want to paint a design on the bottle.

There is no right or wrong combination. Be creative. Decorate with beads, paint or stencils. This is your creation.

Place the bottle in the center of the plate. Use a Sharpie pen to outline the bottom of the bottle on the plate. Drill two ½” or 5/8” holes, one hole each on opposite sides of the plate, just outside the bottle outline . A diamond core bit works best. You’ll need holes large enough for rainwater to run out.

Next drill two holes on opposite sides of the bottle, in the side, near the bottom. These holes need to be large enough for the birdseed to spill out of the bottle and onto the plate. For simplicity, we used the same drill bit for all four holes. You can experiment and try drilling 2, 4 or 5 holes in the wine bottle. The more holes and the larger they are, the easier the bird seed will spill onto the plate.

Since we were experimenting, we made one bird feeder using the largest diamond core bit that will fit in a Dremel tool. We used a 1/2” diamond core bit for the second bird feeder and a 5/8” diamond core bit for the third. Each worked well with no appreciable differences between them. The 15/32” diamond core bit for your Dremel tool is currently on sale.

When drilling with diamond core bits remember to:



• Use a slow drill speed of 500-1500 RPM
• Use light drill pressure
• Keep the drill bit and the glass wet


For this project, drill each piece individually, before you glue them together.

If you’re going to paint or decorate the bottle or plate, now is the time to do it.

We cut 2 small squares of landscape fabric and glued them over the holes in the plate. This will let the rainwater drain from the plate but keep the birdseed on the plate. We used the same glue that we will use for the plate and bottle.

We used Clear–Weld to glue the bottle to the plate. If we drilled the holes in the plate correctly then the glass bottle fits just inside those holes on the plate. Apply the glue to the bottom of the wine bottle and set it firmly on the plate. Let it cure overnight.

We’ve seen a lot of different ways to hang the birdfeeder in a tree. One of the easiest and cleverest is to use a 1” split ring pipe hanger. You will find them in the plumbing section of your local hardware store or home center. Plumbers use them to hang water lines under the floor joists in your house. Fortunately for us they also happen to fit the neck of most wine bottles.

We bought a box of them for anyone that does not have access to them locally. You can find them in the “Misc” section of our website. Clear here: 1” Split Ring Pipe Hanger

Take one of the set screws out of the split ring hanger and loosen the other one. Slip the hanger over the top of the bottle and place it around the neck of the bottle. Replace the screw that you removed and tighten both screws.

We wrapped the picture wire around the set screws on each side of the split ring hanger, leaving about 8” or wire between the screws. This was enough to hang the glass bottle bird feeder from a plant hook.

This 1” size seems to fit most wine bottles but it won’t fit all bottles. It was too large for our decorative “fish” bottle. We applied a thin layer of latex caulk to the inside of the ring and let it cure. Afterwards rubbery caulk made a nice tight seal around the neck of the fish bottle.

The bird feeder is ready to be filled and to hang on our hook. It can be hung in a tree, on a chain, rope or cord. We used a small funnel to fill the bottles with birdseed.

Fill with bird seed and you’re done!!!