# Patent

## Title
Liquid bird feeder

## Abstract

A liquid hummingbird feeder is provided with a liquid container having a sealable top opening and a bottom opening, a liquid tray adapted to immerse the bottom opening in liquid, and a valve mechanism adapted to close the bottom opening to enable the liquid container to be filled through the sealable top opening.

## Background
This application is a continuation application of co-pending U.S. Ser. No. 14/268,740 filed May 2, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 13/354,692 filed Jan. 20, 2012, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,720,374 on May 13, 2014, which was a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 12/929,777, filed Feb. 15, 2011, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,100,085 on Jan. 24, 2012, which was a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 12/588,262 filed Oct. 8, 2009, which issued, as U.S. Pat. No. 7,891,319 on Feb. 22, 2011, which was a continuation application of U.S. Ser. No. 11/434,020 filed May 15, 2006, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,600,487 on Oct. 13, 2009, which claimed priority from U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/681,376 filed May 16, 2005, the priority of which is hereby claimed.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to liquid bird feeders and, in particular, to such bird feeders which may foe filled without inversion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Liquid nectar bird feeders are used for specifically attracting hummingbirds in the same manner as seed feeders are used to attract other birds. Some may consider liquid nectar feeders to be less convenient however, because of the liquid auto-feed structure. Filling liquid feeders commonly requires inversion of the feeder and certain liquid spillage from this action.
It is therefore desirable to have a liquid nectar feeder which minimizes liquid spillage during filling and which even avoids inversion during filling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one embodiment of the present invention, a liquid bird feeder, comprises a liquid container having a scalable top opening and a bottom opening, a liquid tray adapted to immerse the bottom opening in liquid, and a valve mechanism adapted to close the bottom opening to enable the liquid container to be filled through the sealable top opening.
The liquid container may include a vertically oriented cylindrical extension forming the bottom opening. The liquid tray may include a vertically oriented cylindrical collar adapted to connect to the cylindrical extension of the liquid container. The cylindrical collar may include a cylindrical side wall having a liquid port located therein. The valve mechanism may include a rotatable cylindrical member having an opening adapted to selectively align and misalign with the port in the cylindrical collar to respectively open or close the port with rotation of the rotatable cylindrical member. The cylindrical collar may include a plurality of ports and the rotatable cylindrical member may include a corresponding plurality of openings adapted to simultaneously align or misalign with the plurality of ports for respectively opening and closing all of the plurality of ports simultaneously with rotation of the rotatable cylindrical member.
The rotatable cylindrical member may be adapted to be at least partially immersed in liquid within the liquid tray and may include an actuator which extends above the port in the cylindrical collar, and thus above a normal liquid level in the liquid tray. The liquid tray may include a tray cover having one or more feeding ports passing there through and a slot adapted to allow the actuator to be operable from outside of the tray cover to rotate the rotatable cylindrical member.
The liquid container may include a top cover adapted to seal the top opening.



BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention is illustratively shown and described in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a sectional side view of a bird feeder constructed in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged, partial sectional, side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1, showing greater detail and having a component is located in a different operative position from the view of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a top view of the bird feeder of FIGS. 1 and 2 showing approximate cross sectional cut lines used for FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of two components used in the bird feeder of FIGS. 1-3.
FIG. 5 is a different perspective view of the bird feeder components of FIG. 4.



DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In describing preferred embodiments of the present invention illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology is employed for the sake of clarity. However, the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific terminology so selected, and it is to be understood that each specific element includes all technical equivalents that operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose.
FIG. 1 generally shows a sectional side view of a bird feeder 10, which generally includes a reservoir or liquid container 12 and a liquid tray 14. Liquid container 12 includes a scalable top opening 16 having a cover 18 adapted to seal top opening 16. Cover 18 includes peripheral threads 20 adapted to engage liquid container 12 and an O-ring seal 22 located to create an air tight seal.
FIG. 2 shows an enlarged sectional side view of the lower portion of bird feeder 10. Liquid container 12 also includes a bottom opening 24 formed by a cylindrical extension 26 of the lower end 12a of liquid container 12. Bottom opening 24 and liquid tray 14 are oriented to immerse bottom opening 24 in liquid from liquid container 12. This arrangement allows a vacuum created in the upper end 12b of the liquid container 12 to retain liquid therein and automatically feed liquid into liquid tray 14 to the level of bottom opening 24.
Liquid tray 14 includes a vertically oriented, cylindrical collar 30, which extends upwardly and is adapted to engage cylindrical extension 26 of liquid container 12. Cylindrical collar 30 is axially closed at its lower end by formation with liquid tray 14, but includes one or more ports 32 formed in the cylindrical side wall 34.
Bird feeder 10 further includes a valve mechanism 38 including a rotatable cylindrical member 40. Cylindrical member 40 includes one or more openings 42 adapted to either align with a port 32 or misalign in response to the rotation of valve mechanism. 38 and rotatable cylindrical member 40. FIG. 2 shows opening 42 in alignment with a port 32 covered by a portion of rotatable cylindrical member 40, thus effecting closure of ports 32.
FIG. 3 shows the approximate cross section used for FIGS. 1 and 2. However, the angled leg of the cross section line C-C is slightly different between FIGS. 1 and 2, because the cross section passes through actuator handle 48, which is in different positions in FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIGS. 4 and 5 show respective upper and lower perspective views of the liquid tray 14 and valve mechanism 38. FIG. 4 shows cylindrical collar 30 to have a plurality of ports 32, and FIG. 5 shows rotatable cylindrical member 40 to have a plurality of openings 42. Ports 32 and openings 42 are located at the same angular positions around the their respective cylindrical axes to cause simultaneous misalignment or alignment between all ports 32 and openings 42, thus allowing bottom opening 24 to be selectively closed or opened. Valve mechanism 38 further includes a circular disk 46 and an actuator handle 48, which are shown to extend above the level of port 32 in FIGS. 1 and 2. This enables activation of valve mechanism 38 even while there is liquid present in liquid tray.
Now returning to FIGS. 1 and 2, liquid tray 14 further includes a cover 50 adapted to substantially close liquid tray 14 and limit access to any liquid contents thereof. Cover 50 includes a plurality of bird feeder ports 52 adapted to allow access by long-beaked hummingbirds while simultaneously preventing access by bees. Cover 50 further includes a slot 54 to allow the actuator handle 48 to extend outside of liquid tray 14.
The unique construction of bird feeder 10 thus allows filling thereof without necessitating inversion and undesired dripping or spillage of liquid nectar.
It is now apparent to those skilled in the art that other embodiments, improvements, details, and uses can be made consistent with the letter and spirit of the foregoing disclosure and within the scope of this patent, which is limited only by the following claims, construed in accordance with the patent law, including the doctrine of equivalents.

## Claims

1. A top-fill liquid hummingbird feeder for providing liquid nectar to hummingbirds, comprising:
a liquid container configured to contain a volume of liquid nectar and having a top opening and a bottom portion with a liquid flow opening;
a cap adapted to close said top opening and to be removed to allow filling through said top opening;
a liquid tray adjacent said container bottom portion and configured to receive and contain a quantity of liquid nectar flowing from said container through said liquid flow opening into said liquid tray, said liquid tray including at least one feeding port therein having a narrow elongated passageway that is sized for a hummingbird's beak to allow access by hummingbirds while preventing access by bees, liquid contained in said liquid tray being accessible to hummingbirds only through said feeding port when said feeder is in use; and
a valve mechanism including a fixed member and a movable member displaceable with respect to said fixed member between a first position and a second position, said liquid flow opening being opened when said movable member is displaced to said first position relative to said fixed member and being closed when said movable member is displaced to said second position relative to said fixed member, closure of said flow opening by placement of said movable member of said valve mechanism in said second position enabling said liquid container to be filled by removing said cap and adding liquid nectar through said top opening while, at the same time, preventing overflow of nectar through said feeding port.

2. The hummingbird feeder of claim 1, wherein said movable member is slideably engaged with said fixed member.

3. The hummingbird feeder of claim 2, wherein said movable member is concentric and rotatable with respect to said fixed member.

4. The hummingbird feeder of claim 1, wherein said fixed member is attached to said tray and is configured to connect said tray to said liquid container bottom portion.

5. The hummingbird feeder of claim 4, wherein at least a portion of said fixed member includes inner threads adapted to screw-threadedly engage with external threads on the bottom portion of said liquid container to secure the container to the liquid tray.

6. The hummingbird bird feeder of claim 5, wherein said bottom portion of said liquid container includes a vertically oriented bottleneck extension that is received within the threaded portion of the fixed member.

7. The hummingbird feeder of claim 1, wherein said bottom portion of said liquid container includes a vertically oriented bottleneck extension having said flow opening and said fixed member includes a cylindrically curved vertically upstanding structure integral with said liquid tray and adapted to receive said bottleneck extension of said liquid container.

8. The hummingbird feeder of claim 7, wherein at least a portion of said fixed member includes inner threads adapted to screw-threadedly engage with external threads on the bottleneck extension of said liquid container to secure the container to the liquid tray.

9. The hummingbird feeder of claim 1, further comprising an arm projecting outside of the liquid tray and movable by a user to effect displacement of the movable member between the first and second positions to manually open and close the liquid flow opening.

10. A top-fill liquid hummingbird feeder, comprising:
a nectar holding and dispensing enclosure having at least one feeding port therein, said feeding port including a narrow elongated passageway into said enclosure that is sized to allow long-beaked hummingbirds to access nectar held in said enclosure while preventing access by bees, liquid in said nectar holding and dispensing enclosure being accessible to hummingbirds only through said feeding port when said feeder is in use;
a liquid container having a top opening for receiving hummingbird nectar and a lower end with a liquid flow opening for dispensing nectar in communication with said nectar holding and dispensing enclosure;
a container cover adapted to close said top opening of said liquid container;
a valve mechanism configured to regulate flow of hummingbird nectar from said container through said liquid flow opening and into said nectar holding and dispensing enclosure; and
said container, valve mechanism and nectar holding and dispensing enclosure being configured so that, when said liquid flow opening is closed, said liquid container can be filled with nectar through said top opening while, at the same time, overflow of nectar through said feeding port is prevented.

11. The hummingbird feeder of claim 10, wherein said valve mechanism includes a fixed member and a movable member that selectively opens or closes said liquid flow opening to respectively allow or prevent flow of liquid from said container into said nectar holding and dispensing enclosure when said movable member moves between a first position and a second position relative to the fixed member.

12. The hummingbird feeder of claim 11, wherein said nectar holding and dispensing enclosure includes an integral, cylindrically curved, vertically upstanding structure, said container lower end removably coupled to said vertically upstanding structure.

13. The hummingbird feeder of claim 12, wherein said container lower end includes a bottleneck shaped extension having external threads, said vertically upstanding structure including parts that engage opposing sides of said bottleneck extension.

14. The hummingbird feeder of claim 11, wherein each of said fixed member and said movable member have at least one aperture, said apertures being brought into and out of alignment with one another through displacement of said movable member to selectively open and close said liquid flow opening through which liquid in said container flows into said nectar holding and dispensing enclosure.

15. The hummingbird feeder of claim 11, wherein said movable member is slideably engaged with said fixed member.

16. The hummingbird feeder of claim 15, wherein said movable member is concentric and rotatable with respect to said fixed member.

17. The hummingbird feeder of claim 10, further comprising an arm projecting outside of the liquid tray and movable by a user to effect displacement of the movable member to manually open and close the liquid flow opening.

18. The hummingbird feeder of claim 11, wherein said nectar holding and dispensing enclosure includes a tray having a cover, said feeding port being in said cover.

19. The hummingbird feeder of claim 18, further comprising an arm projecting outside of the nectar holding and dispensing enclosure through a slot in said cover, said arm being movable by a user to effect displacement of the movable member to manually open and close the liquid flow opening.

20. The hummingbird feeder of claim 18, wherein said nectar holding and dispensing enclosure is removably coupled to the lower end of said container.