Solar illuminated bird feeder

Feeding wild birds or backyard birds is a great way to learn more about them. They are such fascinating and adorable little creatures. To be successful at the birds dinner table I have eventually learned what to give them to keep them coming.

Here you can see the tiny “solar panel” I mounted on the roof – the light bulb is inside under the roof. The birds don’t seem to be bothered by it at all, and this little great tit is the first guest this frosty morning.

So, this autumn I put up various bird feeders, two of them with windows. I is really so cool to spy on the various visiting bird species and see what they are up to. You can be sure that if the “table is not ready and set” they know where to find me and remind me about that 😀

It’s for sure cosy to see the decorative bird feeders all day, but at night it is completely darkness out there ..almost… so I pondered on how to best enlighten the windowed bird feeders at night. I decided to buy some super-cheap solar cell bulbs (3 EURO each), and installed them with the solar charging “panel” outside on the bird feeders roofand bulb inside. It works like a charm!

The relatively peaceful daytime bird feeders automatically turns into extra cosy bird cabins with slighty illuminated windows in blue, red and greene at night… like somebody is at home in there ... (oh, I think I managed to include the Big Dipper/Karlsvognen in the photo too, can you see it too?)

Up here in the cold north we now only have a few hours of sun this time of year, so the solar cells charging time are pretty limited right now, but a solar cell illumination after dark for some extra hours is enough, and when the reflecting snow comes it will hopefully improve the charging conditions again.

Whenever I can afford it I use solar cell illumination. Now I have put up solar cell illumination both along my barn’s stairway and on two of my bird feeders outdoor, some additional small steps in the right direction. So far this winter we had -18 °C , and the solar cell still works!