Object of Desire: How to Feed Hungry Birds, No Birdseed Required

This tweet just in, from the hungry birds in your garden: What’s for dinner?

One answer they may not be expecting: apples. We’re admiring a Scandi-designed simple brass hook called the Apple Holder, which makes it easy to dangle fruit from a tree limb or an eave.

Maybe you are wondering if birds actually like fruit? For that answer, we turned to the National Audubon Society and learned that some birds are “fruit specialists.” The group includes robins, waxwings, bluebirds, and mockingbirds, who “rarely eat birdseed,” the society notes.

Here’s to the fruit specialists:

Above: The brass Apple Holder, by Scandinavia-based designers Ahnlund-Karlen, has a round screw-on finial to hold an apple in place; $40 NZ at Garden Objects.

Designers Anna-Ella Ahnlund and Åsa-Karin Karlén met as students at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, where they both studied textiles and ceramics.

Above: The Apple Holder measures 14.5 centimeters long (about 5.7 inches) and has a hook at the end to make it easy to hang it from a branch or an eave.

A tip from designer Åsa-Karin Karlén: Take a bite out of the apple before hanging it up to make it easier for birds to eat the fruit.

Another online shop that stocks the bird feeder is Mysfacktor, where an Äppelkrok is 149 kr.

With winter coming, our thoughts naturally turn to…bird feeders. Yours too? Read more:

• 10 Easy Pieces: Bird Feeders
• Object of Desire: A Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder from Germany
• DIY: A Grapefruit Bird Feeder for Feathered Friends
• Object of Desire: A Cheerful Bird Feeder, Made in the US