How to Make a Pine Cone Bird Feeder

Lori VanoverUpdated: Sep. 16, 2021

Teach your kids and grandkids about nature by making this easy homemade bird feeder. Woodpeckers and nutchatches will love it!

One of my favorite things about birding is passing on my passion to younger generations. Ask your kids or grandkids to help you make an easy DIY pine cone bird feeder, and then teach them about the different species that it attracts.

DIY Pine Cone Bird Feeder

Gather a pine cone, peanut butter (smooth or crunchy are both OK), a pipe cleaner, a popsicle stick, and a small dish of bird seed. Twist a pipe cleaner to the top of the pine cone. Then have kids spread peanut butter in all of the nooks and crannies using a popsicle stick. If the peanut butter is too thick to spread, soften it in the microwave for a few seconds. Next, kids should roll the sticky cone in birdseed.

Once the DIY bird treat is finished, hang it in a nearby tree. Watch from a distance to see which bird species stop by your backyard for a nibble. Here’s how to make a birdseed wreath.

What Birds Eat Peanut Butter?

Peanut butter-loving birds include downy, hairy, red-bellied and red-headed woodpeckers, as well as Northern flickers, blue jays and nuthatches. Kids can also help smear peanut butter directly on tree trunks to attract birds. Here’s even more ways to introduce kids to birding.

Originally Published: July 20, 2020

Lori Vanover

Lori has 20 years of experience writing and editing home, garden, birding and lifestyle content for several publishers. As Birds & Blooms senior digital editor, she leads a team of writers and editors sharing birding tips and expert gardening advice. Since joining Trusted Media Brands 13 years ago, she has held roles in digital and print, editing magazines and books, curating special interest publications, managing social media accounts, creating digital content and newsletters, and working with the Field Editors—Birds & Blooms network of more than 50 backyard birders. Passionate about animals and nature, Lori has a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural and Environmental Communications from the University of Illinois. In 2023, she became certified as a Wisconsin Extension Master Gardener, and she is a member of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology and sits on the organization's Publications Advisory Committee. She frequently checks on her bird feeders while working from home and tests new varieties of perennials, herbs and vegetable plants in her ever-growing backyard gardens.