Whoopie!

Our Very First
Wild Bird Seed Feeder!

While looking for washers to fit up my DIY Parabolic Microphone at Ace Hardware in the Ikano Power Centre, PJ, I was stunned to be starring at a Bird Seed Feeder! Please note that usually such feeders are never found here in this country or perhaps the whole of Asia! We were trying to buy one from the USA. They retail it for around USD 8 each but the courier charge of USD80 would put anyone off!
After looking around the section, I noticed some other feeders like the 'suet' type. There were 20 pieces. The suet ones are almost impossible to use because one have to use 'suet' cakes (made of hardened seeds,fruits,fats,vitamins...) In our hot climate, these would have melted down to the ground!
WHOA! this costs RM86.90, such high profit! It is made in China!
So we took the one and ONLY unit!
Luckily it was also adaptable for small and large seeds.
Yesterday, we went to a bird shop in Klang town and look for seeds. We had a hard time explaining to the boss about our wild birds. He has not heard of feeding wild birds with this kind of feeder before! We really can't blame him because all his customers are feeding CAGED birds!

There was a wide array and types of seed!
We chose the popular ones.
Because we have visiting wild birds, I would expect our resident Merbuks (Peaceful Dove) to feed from this feeder.
This would not be easy because the one made for the USA are for finches, Chickadees, Nuthatches and siskins. I would have to coax and lead our to new babies who are already taking flying lessons from the parents.
Our earlier DIY Nectar feeders are very successful and we have 3 of them. Topping the nectar every 3 days draws our five little sunbirds everyday.

Still working our way to feed our resident Magpies (7 of them) who roost here every night.

Could this be the ONLY wild birds seed feeder working here in Malaysia (or in Asia) right now?

Bird Bath Up!

Our DIY Bird Bath is Completed
and Running!

On the upper left, is our DIY Nectar Bird Feeder.

Bought flower pots to mix and match from Lorong Hijau in Sg. Buloh, PJ. It took us four solid hours looking for matching shapes and sizes from various shops!
This is to set up our Bird Bath which is also a water feature.

After glueing up the connecting flexible hose both on the bottom and
on the insides,
and to be connected to a recycled mini-aquarium filter pump, (new one costs about RM12) and is also fixed to an electrical timer (RM9) which is set for 7am till 7pm.
We set it up using a water leveller to adjust the water drop effect.
These five pots cost us RM120 total.
As compared to the one we actually planned to buy (specially made with sand stone) costs a whopping RM680!! Heck! It is so damned commercialised these days.

The bag of washed pebbles cost RM12. It is needed to adjust the depth of the lower section in case some birds do not like deeper waters.
The top water spray can be also adjusted by adding these pebbles so as not to scare the birds.
The first visitors were our resident Magpies who just dashed onto the top part and started drinking from it. Later, one of them took a splashy bath!
The next day, the Sunbirds came and took a sip. As of today, the girl Sunbird is taking strips of coconut fibres off my orchid plantings to, what I suspect, build a nest!!!! The male fellow is busy sipping nectar and cleaning himself.

All these happening under the watchful eyes of a mummy Merbuk tending to her two babies on her nest built on my wall fan directly above!
This is good! The birds are happy!

(Please click on images to enlarge. All images are by author)