Birdseed Ornaments & More

Homemade birdseed ornaments are easy to make for kids of all ages, and they are a great way to attract birds to your backyard.

Download a free PDF printable with a birdseed ornament recipe (found in our Creative Arts and Crafts book), as well as instructions to make a yarn bird craft!

Birdseed Ornaments

Items needed to make approximately six birdseed ornaments:

• 1 ¼ tsp unflavored gelatin (1 pack)
• 1 ½ Tbsp corn syrup
• 2 cups birdseed
• ⅓ cup flour
• ¼ cup water
• Cooking spray, butter, or shortening
• Metal cookie cutters
• Parchment paper
• Twine or string, 9” for each ornament
• A 2″ piece of straw for each birdseed ornament
• A saucepan and a medium-sized bowl
• A spatula

Follow these eight simple steps:

STEP 1: 

In a saucepan, heat the water, gelatin, and corn syrup. Dissolve the gelatin, but don’t let it boil. Pour the birdseed and flour into a separate bowl and mix together. Slowly add the gelatin mixture into the birdseed mixture and mix well. It will be thick and gooey.

STEP 2: 

The mixture is sticky, so lay out parchment paper to work on a non-stick surface.

STEP 3: 

Grease cookie cutters. Spray or grease the interior of your cookie cutters with cooking spray, butter, or shortening so the ornaments come out easily when they are dry. Set the cutters on the parchment paper.

STEP 4:

Grease your hands to help the birdseed mixture resist sticking to your fingers. Press the mixture into all the corners of your cookie cutters.

STEP 5: 

Push a greased straw into each ornament about ¼” away from the edge. This will create a hole so you can hang the ornament with string. Make sure to push the straw all the way down and leave it there.

STEP 6: 

Let the birdseed ornaments dry for several hours with the straw in. Then remove the ornaments from the cookie cutters and pull out the straws.

STEP 7: 

Cut a 9″ piece of twine or string. Thread it through the hole of the ornament and tie a knot at the top. Repeat for all ornaments.

STEP 8: 

Find a tree to hang your ornaments on! Make sure you nestle the birdseed ornaments into the branches so the birds have a branch to stand on while they eat!

If you enjoyed making this birdseed ornament, visit this site for more homemade bird feeder ideas.

Find more arts and crafts for kids in our bestselling book!

Yarn Bird Craft

Decorate one side of your bird and hang it on a wall, or decorate both sides and hang it from the ceiling. 

Items needed to make a yarn bird craft: 

• 3 sticks: two 2” sticks; one 4–6” stick
• Yarn (any color; use as many colors as desired)
• Colored paper scraps (wing, beak, eye)
• Cardboard (roughly 5″x7″)
• Scissors
• Glue or tape (A glue gun works well for this project.)

Follow these six simple steps:

STEP 1: 

Trace and cut out a bird shape from the cardboard. (This may be tricky for younger children. An older child or adult can cut it out ahead of time.)

STEP 2: 

Cut small slits along the edge of the bird body.

STEP 3: 

Wrap the bird shape with yarn into the cut slits. To make your bird colorful, cut your yarn, tie a new color, and continue wrapping.

STEP 4: 

Cut out scraps of paper for the eye, beak, and wing. 

STEP 5: 

Glue or tape the two 2” stick legs onto your bird. 

STEP 6: 

Finally, glue your bird onto a 4–6” stick.

Don’t forget our free printable!

Other Bird Resources

• Go to this blog post at Happy Hooligans to find a fun collection of 32 homemade bird feeders.  

• Do you want to help your backyard birds find bird-safe nesting materials? Visit this Audubon site for bird-safe nesting materials.

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