How to make a simple and effective orange peel bird feeder for small birds in our winter gardens 🍊

As I was freshly squeezing my oranges for my daily vitamin C intake strengthening my immunity, I was looking at the pile of my squeezed orange peels.

What a shame to just throw them in the compost. Surely I can utilise them in a creative way that suits a lovely upcycling purpose.

Excellent source of vitamin C

We know that citrus fruit are an excellent source of vitamin C, not just in winter, but in order to avoid a cold during these frosty days, we ought to make sure that we plan vitamin C into our daily food regime.

Foods containing vitamin C and antioxidants are not just good for us but also healthy for our garden birds.

Bird feeder with added benefit

So, there is our upcycling idea. What a better way to reuse the orange peels but to create a simple and effective bird feeder for our small birds in our backyards providing them with a little bit of vitamin C as we feed them their favourite nibbles.

Let's get started!

After you cut your orange in half and squeezed it for your orange juice, poke a needle or a knife through the side of the peel. I would suggest to go at least a third of the way down from the top of the peel to ensure the peel won't break. Poke the peel on four sides.

Take pieces of natural yarn or string of the same length, pull them through the holes and tie them to a knot. Ready!

Now you can hang your feeder from a tree branch or a hook and fill it with all the goodies that your garden birds like to eat.

What should I feed my garden birds?

To make the best food choices for the birds in your environment, you need to know what birds are regularly visiting your garden.

Just to give a few examples: safflower seeds or black-oil sunflower seeds are two of our finches' favourites, robins love mealworms, chickadees appreciate peanuts as a little treat.

What should I not feed my garden birds?

Avocados, raw potatoes, fruit seeds, garlic and onion, coffee and chocolate are nothing but toxic to our wild little garden friends.

Amongst others, there is also a misconception that bread is good for wild birds. This is sadly not true since commercial bread contains preservatives and artificial flavours that can harm wild birds; pigeons, ducks and doves included.

Because we love our garden birds

I hope you like our little orange peel hack and would like to thank you for looking after and feeding our lovely, plucky, pretty, happy little friends during the cold winter season.