It’s Day 25 of our 31 Days of Outdoor Activities for Toddlers! We just discovered two beautiful bird nests in our yard in the last few days so making another DIY Fine Motor bird feeder seemed like a great idea (check out our toilet paper roll bird feeder we made earlier this month)! One is a dove…the mama bird sits on top of her nest on our trellis arch (pictured below). The other we just found today inside a box in the garage. There is just one egg inside…I’m hoping the mama comes back!

 

 

We were inspired by this bird feeder from Non Toy Gifts but we used the bottom of a cherry tomato container to hold the bird seed instead and added some straw pieces (leftover from our straw sensory tub). Little Sister eats cherry tomatoes like candy and ate the entire container in a 24-hour period…so we put that tub to good use! :)

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

Cherry Tomato Container (or bowl)

String

Hole Punch

Cheerios

Straws Cut Up

Bird Seed

 

 

1. Gather your materials. Tie the string onto the ends of the container/bowl, using the hole punch if necessary. Our bird feeder had 4 strings.

2. Get started threading the string with cheerios and straw pieces.

At first Little Sister thought it was too hard to thread the straws and Cheerios through the string, so she decided to just play in the birdseed instead…

 

But then she decided she couldn’t be outdone by her big brother so she got to work and did a great job!

 

Threading beads/straws/Cheerios is EXCELLENT for encouraging fine motor practice and building those small muscles in the hands!

 

 

3. Once all the sides are threaded with Cheerios and straws, hang the bird feeder by tying all 4 sides together.

 

 

 

 

Check out more outdoor activities for toddlers here: