Recycled Milk Jug Bird House

by jackjackboom in Outside > Birding

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Recycled Milk Jug Bird House

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As Earth Day is around the corner, and birds are starting to build nests, I decided to make a recycled bird house. This bird box is designed for chickadees. Chickadees happen to be my favorite bird since I have built houses for two generations of these birds.
Chickadees prefer houses about 6 or 7 inches square, with a hole about 1" in diameter.And so a milk jug is about perfect for Chickadees. On to the parts list!!!!

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Parts!!
-A milk jug
-duct tape
-scissors
-a sharpie
-a long bolt or pencil

Cut Your Jug

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Take your Sharpie and draw a straight line around the whole thing. Start your line about a centimeter underneath the handle. Next, take the part that you just cut off and locate the little line that goes around the bottom of the jug. Cut on that line. If you put the bottom and top of your jug together you will basically have shortened version of the original milk jug.  

Tape It All Together

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Tape or glue the two pieces together. Try to keep it as watertight as possible!!! We don't want to accidentally drown a couple of baby birds. I decided to make my house look as ugly as possible and slather the thing in duct tape. You can do whatever you want to do with it.

Finishing Touches

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Use you handy dandy scissors and cut off very top of the jug, right where the threads are. Then poke a small hole right underneath the entrance and put a bolt or pencil into it. Try your very best to tape or glue it in place so that it doesn't wobble. Finally, poke a hole in the back of the house and hang it up on a nail. (Chickadees prefer there houses to be about five feet from the ground.) You are done!!!!! I hope that you will enjoy your baby birds as much as I have, and remember RECYCLE!!!!!!!!!!