Patent Publication Number: US-10321666-B2

Title: Hand held bird feeding assembly

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
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     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
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     THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
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     INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM 
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     STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR 
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     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     (1) Field of the Invention 
     The disclosure relates to bird feeding devices and more particularly pertains to a new bird feeding device for allowing a person to hand feed a hummingbird. 
     (2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98 
     The prior art relates to bird feeding devices. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a container that has a bottom wall and a perimeter wall that is attached to and extends upwardly from the bottom wall. An upper portion of the container distal to the bottom wall tapers inward. An opening extends into a top end of the container. An artificial flower is attached to the container adjacent to the opening. A feeding fluid is placed within the container and can be used to feed a hummingbird from the container as the container is being held. 
     There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. 
     The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) 
       The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a top perspective view of a hand held bird feeding assembly according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  is a side view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  is a top view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective in-use view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective in-use view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 6  is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the disclosure taken along line  6 - 6  of  FIG. 2 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to  FIGS. 1 through 6  thereof, a new bird feeding device embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral  10  will be described. 
     As best illustrated in  FIGS. 1 through 6 , the hand held bird feeding assembly  10  generally comprises a container  12  having a bottom wall  14  and a perimeter wall  16  that is attached to and extends upwardly from the bottom wall  14 . An upper portion  18  of the container  12  distal to the bottom wall  14  tapers inward. An opening  20  extends into a top end  22  of the container  12 . The opening  20  has a diameter is between 1/16 of an inch and ¼ of an inch. The container  12  has a height from the bottom wall  14  to the top end  22  between 2.5 inches and 5.0 inches. The container  12  includes a body component  24  and a cap component  26  threadably coupled together. The cap component  26  includes the top end  22 . The cap component  26  is removable from the body component  24  and the body component  24  is configured to receive a fluid for feeding a humming bird  40 . The fluid is conventional and includes a nectar like fluid of high sugar content. 
     An artificial flower  28  is attached to the container  12  adjacent to the opening  20 . The top end  22  extends through a central area of the artificial flower  28  such that pedals  30  of the artificial flower  28  radiate outwardly from the top end  22 . The artificial flower  28  has a diameter taken perpendicular to an axis of the opening  20  of between 1.0 inches and 2.0 inches. The artificial flower  28  may be comprised of flexible or rigid material and may be colored or shaped to look like any particular flower known to attract hummingbirds. 
     A grip  32  is attached to the container  12  to facilitate holding of the container  12 . The grip  32  includes a pair of finger receivers  34 . At least one of the finger receivers  34  forms a closed loop  36 . Each of the finger receivers  34  is aligned with each other and positioned on a same side of the container  12  with respect to each other. This allows a user to control the angle of the container  12  easily as seen in  FIG. 5 , while keeping one finger free to act as a perch  42  for the hummingbird  40 . 
     In use, a user will first set up a feeding station to cause hummingbirds  40  to become accustomed to feeding from artificial flowers in the area the user wishes to hand feed the bird. After one to two weeks of the hummingbirds  40  feeding at the feeding station, the user will fill the container  12  with nectar or a sugar solution and hold it generally horizontally as shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5  so that the hummingbird  40  may access the opening and drink from the container. The artificial flower  28  will remove the anxiety from the hummingbird  40  so that is will feed from the container  12  directly. 
     With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.