While this project is pretty tailored to geting birds to bring stuff to exchange for food, it can easily be used for other purposes.

• Replace unshelled peanuts with other foods and use this to train or condition other animals like rats, dogs or cats.
• Just use it as a bird feeder, dispensing food at intervals during the day to reduce mess, waste and unwanted visitors.
• Replace the deposit sensor with a button, puzzle, microphone or other sensor to study other forms of reasoning and intelligence.