This is an easy and fun project to do with the kids. In our Winter Wonderland unit we encourage feeding the birds and include several different bird feeder crafts in the activities. This Frozen Fruit Ring Bird Feeder, can add a festive flair to your bird feeder area or just add some lovely color to your backyard in the middle of the winter.
Frozen Fruit Ring Bird Feeder Materials:
- Bundt pan, or jello ring mold
- Colorful fruit
- Bird Seed
- Thick String or ribbon
Frozen Fruit Ring Bird Feeder Directions:
For this project we used some strawberries and cherries that were starting to turn bad. This is normally fruit that we would add to our compost bin.
Partially fill the bottom of your pan with cold water. Add some fruit (you can leave the stems and leaves on for more color) and a handful or two of bird seed.
Place outside until it starts to freeze. Hint… although you can freeze the ring in your freezer, if it is not cold enough outside to freeze your ring then this project won’t really work since you need it to stay frozen after you hang it up outside.
When it has frozen you can add another layer of water, fruit, and seeds. I recommend doing this in layers since the seeds will float and end up only on the top edge if you try to do it all at once. Place it back outside.
Once you have filled the pan and it is frozen solid (we left ours outside over night), pop the ice ring out of the mold.
Tie a loop of string or ribbon around the ring.
Hang it in your yard near your other feeders for a fun pop of color. As it melts the birds and other critters will be able to get to the seeds and fruit. Your other bird feeders will probably be more popular but some birds did enjoy it, and we did have some sneaky bandit run off with our whole ring one night. Somebody enjoyed it very much and it was very pretty to look at from the window.
