Backyard Heart Bird Feeders

With our backyard blanketed in snow and the winter birds on the hunt for food, we decided to bring some love to our feathered friends by making them their very own Valentines!
Homemade bird feeders are a wonderful way for children to connect with nature, as well as an opportunity to see, support and learn about local birds. These little heart feeders whip up quick and are manageable even for the preschoolers in your life. A perfect snowy afternoon activity!

To make you will need:

• fresh cranberries
• frozen cherries
• grapefruit
• Cheerios
• pipe cleaners
• string

Now to create!

For the cranberry hearts:
Start by threading the cranberries onto the pipe cleaner one at a time. They are fairly soft so they slide on easily and smell good too! A great activity to encourage hand-eye coordination and play at the same time!

Once the pipe cleaner is almost full of cranberries, bend it into a circular shape and twist the ends together.
Next, push a cranberry onto the two ends twisted together and gently mold it into a heart shape. Then tie on some string for hanging.

For the cherry feeder:
While your little one is busy threading cherries onto the pipe cleaner, you can tackle the more difficult part. Slice a round piece of grapefruit and cut it into a heart shape. Once the pipe cleaner is full of cherries, gently mold it into a circle and tie on the grapefruit heart.

For the Cheerios feeder:
This is by far the easiest little heart feeder of them all and a fun way to use up that stale cereal!
Simply thread a pipe cleaner with cheerios until it is full,  then bend it into a heart and tie on a string to hang.

Hang your beautiful Valentines out for the birds and watch for them feast on your gifts. A wonderful way to take care of the birdies in the backyard and bring smiles of proud delight to little faces.

Enjoy!