After someone pointed me to a few videos of peanut butter bird feeder videos from YouTube I decided to make a test version here.
I changed it a bit from the examples I saw. I didn't want to use even a small Aldi's jar of peanut butter and run the chance of coating birds if they really start to use it. So, I went looking for a more shallow cup for the peanut butter that I could also easily replace given the hot sun here cooks and makes plastic brittle (making them crumble easily). After several attempts, I landed on either pudding cups or individual yogurt cups. The latter eventually won out. The tapioca pudding cup fit the hole perfectly without routing it out. It just looked too deep to me and I finished out with a yogurt cup. I used a hole saw to make a hole in a piece of scrap and then a router to further make the ring concave in order to fit the convex profile near the rim of the cup.
I also scored the area underneath the cup and a bit to each side so the birds have something to grab.
I used two small stainless steel screws to anchor the cup. I also used two stainless screw eyes at the top. If a raccoon gets it (and we have our share), he'll have to unhook BOTH hooks. And the two hooks also make for a stable hang with less wind sway and twisting.
This afternoon I added peanut butter and deployed it next to my suet feeders. No sign of use yet. We'll see.
Always looking for interesting plants for pollinators and food! Bonus points for highly, and pleasantly scented plants.
"Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit." [“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”] -- Marcus Tullius Cicero in Ad Familiares IX, 4, to Varro. 46 BCE