Puzzle Birdfeeders

I am currently watching a bird eating out of dish full of oatmeal (the hedgehog previously used for this was let go).

The bird just stands there in the sun, looking around, and then lazily leans over and sucks down an oatmeal flake. Then it leans back, and enjoys the sun. Whenever it wants to eat, it just leans forward, and picks up another oatmeal flake.

This is a young bird, and occasionally is fed flakes by a parent-figure, although he is much larger then his parent-figure.

Instead of contributing to the mental flaccidness of growing and learning birds, risking leaving grown birds terminally stupid, I would like to develop a series of puzzle birdfeeders.

These would be simple wood and rope constructions, very cheap to make. Buy many of them, and provide a stimulating school for the regular birds in your backyard. Increase the neighborhood IQ.

These feeders are normally pre-charged with 'success' feed to attract the initial curious bird.

All buttons are easy-to-press and large for clumsy children birds.

Descriptions of an initial release of puzzle birdfeeders follow:

(Push) A bird feed container that only releases bird feed when a lever is pressed.

(Pull) This feeder releases feed when a rope is pulled

(Chord) Feed is released when two buttons are pressed simultaneously

(Order) Feed is released when a set of small wooden keys are pressed in a preset appropriate sequence. This could just be two keypresses. For instance, left immediately followed by right drops feed. Right followed by left does nothing.

(Foresight) Feed is released, on left hand side of the feeder, if a button is depressed on the right side.

(Sandwich) Two large squares of wood balanced on a beam over a bin with a trap door. A rope connects the second square to the first square. Food is stacked on the first square, and then the second square is set upon the food. The birds need to eat evenly around the edges of the sandwich to avoid having the second (upper) square tip over and drop into the bin below. The rope will pull the first square and the food will follow -- all gone!

(Guillotine) This feeder is a vertical tower, filled with alternating compressed birdseed blocks or bread and wooden slats. The slats are staggered somewhat randomly through the tower, and attach at one or both sides, perpendicularly or diagonally, into slots on the wall of the tower. As birdseed is removed from the bottom of a slat, or a supporting slat drops, the slat will slide down, changing the configuration of the feeder. The bird will then have to alter its tactics to get the rest of the feed. The depth of this feeder can allow for tactics such as boring a hole through feed to get to additional feed stored deeper, before eating supporting feed and losing access due to a dropping slat. Move quick!