Ojibway Bird Trap

I had a go at making a quick bird trap today. Of course this is for fun only as traps are illegal.

I used a few modern peices of kit for convenience and illustration purposes.

The mechanism is simple. A small perch is wedged in a hole against a peice of string with a heavy weight attached at one end and a noose on the other. The weight pulls the peg into the hole using the friction of the string, there by trapping the string. The noose sits on the peg. When a bird alights on the peg it comes out of the hole and the weight drops and the noose tightens around the birds legs.

The peg, Elder shaped for hole.

I used an old hearth board for the peg board becuase i did not want to drill a hole in my decking.

Noose. In reality you would make this from brass wire for example. Buts its easier to see this way.

good heavy weight

a post. A tree or anything would work. You need a hole in it as high as possible.

The weight suspended.

The trap set. Peg holds string and weight up. The string is too long in this pic.

close up of mechanism

noose

noose on peg

Correct length for string.

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