Birdhouse Design Tips–Part 2

Posted on November 20, 2005 by Kathi

Now that you have the correct dimensions for your birdhouse (see last post), let’s take a look at how to make it safe.

Without air vents, boxes can turn into bird ovens. There are two ways to provide ventilation: leave gaps between the roof and sides of the box, or drill 1/4″ holes just below the roof.


Drainage

Water becomes a problem when it sits in the bottom of a birdhouse. A roof with sufficient slope and overhang offers some protection. Drilling the entrance hole on an upward slant may also help keep the water out.

Regardless of design, driving rain will get in through the entrance hole. You can assure proper drainage by cutting away the corners of the box floor and by drilling 1/4 inch holes in the box floor. Nest boxes will last longer if the floors are recessed about 1/4 inch.


Entrance Hole

Look for the entrance hole (and exit) hole on the front panel near the top. A rough surface both inside and out makes it easier for the adults to get into the box and, when it’s time, for the nestlings to climb out.

If your box is made of finished wood, add a couple of grooves outside below the hole. Open the front panel and add grooves, cleats, or wire mesh to the inside.

Never put up a bird house with a perch below the entrance hole. Perches offer starlings, house sparrows, and other predators a convenient place to wait for lunch.

Don’t be tempted by those beautiful duplexes or houses that have more than one entrance hole. With the exception of purple martins, cavity-nesting birds prefer not to share a house. While these condos look great in your yard, starlings and house sparrows are the only birds inclined to use them.


Accessibility

Birdhouses should be easily accessible so you can see how your birds are doing and, when the time comes, clean out the house.

Part of being a responsible birdhouse landlord is your willingness to watch out for your tenants. Monitor your birdhouses every week and evict unwanted creatures: house sparrows, starlings, rodents, snakes, and insects.

Be careful when you inspect your bird boxes. You may find something other than a bird inside. Don’t be surprised to see squirrels, a mouse, a snake, or insects. Look for fleas, flies, mites, larvae, and lice in the bottom of the box.

If you find insects and parasites, your first reaction may be to grab the nearest can of insect spray. If you do, use only insecticides known to be safe around birds: 1% rotenone powder or pyrethrin spray. If wasps are a problem, coat the inside top of the box with bar soap.

Here’s how to check your nest boxes:

  1. Watch the nest for a while.
  2. If you don’t see or hear any birds, go over and tap on the box.
  3. If you hear bird sounds, open the top and take a quick peek inside.
  4. If everything’s okay, close the box.
  5. If you see problems (parasites or predators), remove them and close the box.

Here’s where a birdhouse with easy access makes the job simple. Most birdhouses can be opened from the top, the side, the front, or the bottom.

Boxes that open from the top and the front provide the easiest access. Opening the box from the top is less likely to disturb nesting birds. It’s impossible to open a box from the bottom without the nest falling out. While side- and front-opening boxes are convenient for cleaning and monitoring, they have one drawback: the nestlings may jump out.

If this happens, don’t panic. Just pick them up and put them back in the nest. Don’t worry that the adults will reject the nestlings if you handle them. That’s a myth. Most birds have a terrible sense of smell.

If you clean out your nest boxes after each brood has fledged, several pairs may use the nest throughout the summer. Many cavity-nesting birds will not nest again in a box full of old nesting.

In the fall, after you’ve cleaned out your nest boxes for the last time, you can put them in storage or leave them out. Gourds and pottery last longer if you take them in for the winter. You can leave your purple martin houses up, but be sure to plug the entrance holes to discourage starlings and house sparrows.

Leaving your wood and concrete houses out provides shelter for birds, flying squirrels, and other animals during winter.

Each spring, be sure to clean out all birdhouses you’ve left out for the winter.


Limiting Predator Access

Proper box depth, roof, and entrance hole design will help minimize predator (raccoons, cats, opossums, and red squirrels) access. Sometimes all it takes is an angled roof with a three-inch overhang to discourage mammals.

The entrance hole is the only thing between a predator and a bird house full of nestlings. By itself, the 3/4″ wall isn’t wide enough to keep out the arm of a raccoon or house cat. Add a predator guard a 3/4 inch thick rectangular wood block, to thicken the wall, and you’ll discourage sparrows, starlings, and cats.

The Birding Manual for Bird Watching

For more tips and information like these, you should check out The Birding Manual and the other books in the Birding for Everyone package at http://www.complete-bird-
watching-guide.com/birding-package.html

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Birdhouse Design Tips–Part 1

Posted on November 14, 2005 by Kathi

How elaborate you make your birdhouse depends on your personal sense of aesthetics.

For the most part, all the birds care about is their safety and having a house that is the right dimensions: box height, depth and floor, diameter of entrance hole, and height of hole above the box floor. Refer to the following chart, keeping in mind that birds make their own choices, without regard for charts. So don’t be surprised when you find bird tenants you never expected in a house you intended for someone else.


If You Build a Better Birdhouse, They Will Come…

Nest Box Dimensions
Species Box floor
(inches)		 Box height
(inches)		 Entrance height
(inches)		 Entrance diameter
(inches)		 Placement height
(feet)
American Robin* 7×8 8 — — 6-15
Eastern & Western Bluebird 5×5 8-12 6-10 1-1/2 4-6
Mountain Bluebird 5×5 8-12 6-10 1-1/2 4-6
Chickadees 4×4 8-10 6-8 1-1/8 4-15
Titmice 4×4 10-12 6-10 1-1/4 5-15
Ash-throated Flycatcher 6×6 8-12 6-10 1-1/2 5-15
Great Crested Flycatcher 6×6 8-12 6-10 1-3/4 5-15
Phoebes* 6×6 6 — — 8-12
Brown-headed Pygmy and Red-breasted Nuthatch 4×4 8-10 6-8 1-1/4 5-15
White-breasted Nuthatch 4×4 8-10 6-8 1-3/8 5-15
Prothonotary Warbler 5×5 6 4-5 1-1/8 4-8
Barn Swallow* 6×6 6 — — 8-12
Purple Martin 6×6 6 1-2 2-1/4 6-20
Tree and Violet-Green Swallows 5×5 6-8 4-6 1-1/2 5-15
Downy Woodpecker 4×4 8-10 6-8 1-1/4 5-15
Hairy Woodpecker 6×6 12-15 9-12 1-1/2 8-20
Lewis’s Woodpecker 7×7 16-18 14-16 2-1/2 12-20
Northern Flicker 7×7 16-18 14-16 2-1/2 6-20
Pileated Woodpecker 8×8 16-24 12-20 3×4 15-25
Red-Headed Woodpecker 6×6 12-15 9-12 2 10-20
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 5×5 12-15 9-12 1-1/2 10-20
Bewick’s and House wrens 4×4 6-8 4-6 1-1/4 5-10
Carolina Wren 4×4 6-8 4-6 1-1/2 5-10
Barn Owls 10×18 15-18 4 6 12-18
Screech Owls and Kestrel 8×8 12-15 9-12 3 10-30
Osprey 48×48 platform
Red-tailed Hawk and Great Horned Owl 24×24 platform
Wood Ducks 10×18 10-24 12-16 4 10-20

*Use nesting shelf, platform with three sides and an open front

Building a birdhouse can be a fun activity for the whole family, as can the birdwatching that will ensue once it’s built! If you think one is fun, build several different ones, each designed to attract a different species of bird. You’ll be amazed by what–and who–you will see. You can’t beat it.

For more tips and information like these, you should check out The
Birding Manual and the other books in the Birding for Everyone package
at http://www.complete-bird-watching-guide.com/birding-package.html.

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Problems at the Bird Nestbox

Posted on November 10, 2005 by Kathi

Many homeowners invite birds to nest in their yards by putting up a bird nestbox. Almost two dozen species will consider a human-made nest to be as good as their own. How do you make sure the “right” animal is using your bird nest?

Learn all you can about the birds you want to attract and offer them a nestbox that opens at the top and the front or side. Monitor the nest box, and evict starlings and house sparrows.

The safest solution to insect infestations of a bird nestbox is physical removal and soaping the inside top of the box. If insects infest the box during nesting, apply a light dusting of rotenone or pyrethrin. Do not use chemical sprays.

If snakes and climbing mammals are a problem, use physical barriers to the birdhouse to deter them. Try a PVC pipe over your metal birdhouse pole, or metal sheeting on a tree or wood pole. Smear the PVC or metal with Vaseline laced with hot (cayenne) pepper. Avoid automotive grease; it can be lethal to wildlife.

Here are a few more tips…

  • Put a predator guard over the nest entrance hole.
  • Do not use birdhouses with perches below the entrance hole.
  • If you find birds attacking the adults, eggs or nestlings, what you can do depends on the perpetrators. Eliminate house sparrows and starlings. Federal and state laws protect all other birds from extermination. You may not harass or otherwise harm hawks, owls, falcons, crows, grackles, jays and shrikes.

For more tips and information like these, you should check out The Birding Manual and the other books in the Birding for Everyone package at http://www.complete-bird-
watching-guide.com/birding-package.html.

And don’t forget to subscribe to this blog by clicking one of the buttons in the right hand panel!

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Birds You Can Attract to Nestboxes–Part 2

Posted on November 6, 2005 by Kathi

In our last post, we talked about some of the birds you can attract to nestboxes that you’ve built or hung in your backyard bird sanctuary. Today, we touch on several more varieties of wild birds you can bring to your yard for your bird watching pleasure…


Purple Martins

Many people want martins because they’re viewed as a sort of natural bug zapper. It’s been said that these birds can eat 2,000 mosquitoes a day. While it’s true that they eat flying insects, don’t expect purple martins to wipe out your mosquitoes. Martins actually prefer dragonflies, insects that prey on mosquito larvae.

Mosquitoes are most active after sunset. If you want to rid your yard of mosquitoes, put up a bat roosting box. One bat can eat thousands of mosquitoes a night.

But don’t cross martins off your prospective tenant list because they don’t live up to their
“bug zapping” reputation. If you need a reason for attracting them, these gregarious swallows put on a show that’s better than any television soap opera.

You have the best chance of attracting martins if you put a house on the edge of a pond or river, surrounded by a field or lawn. Martins need a radius of about 40 feet of unobstructed flying space around their houses. A convenient wire nearby gives them a place to perch in sociable groups.

Martins nest in groups, so you’ll need a house with a minimum of four large rooms — 6 or more inches on all sides, with a 2-1/2 inch entrance hole about an inch and a half above the floor.

Ventilation and drainage are critical factors in martin house design. Porches, railings, porch dividers and supplemental roof perches, like a TV antenna, will make any house more appealing.

Gourds may also be made into houses by making an entrance hole and providing drainage. If you use gourds, it’s not necessary to add railings and perches. Adult martins will perch on the wire used to hang the houses.

Before you decide on a house, take the time to think about what kind of pole you’re going to put it on. Martins will occupy a house that’s between ten and twenty feet off the ground. Some poles are less cumbersome than others.

Gourd houses are the easiest to set up. You can string them:

  • from a wire between two poles
  • from a sectional aluminum pole
  • on pulleys mounted to cross-bar high up on a pole

Light-weight aluminum houses can be mounted on telescoping poles, providing easy access for maintenance and inspection. Because of their weight (well over 30 pounds), wood houses cannot be mounted on easy-access telescoping poles. You’ll have to use a sturdy metal or wood pole attached to a pivot post. The problem with this “lowering” technique is that you can’t tilt the house without damaging the nests inside. If you put your house on a shorter, fixed pole, ten to twelve feet high, you can use a ladder to inspect and maintain it.


Flycatchers

The great crested flycatcher and its western cousin, the ash-throated flycatcher, are common in wooded suburbs. Their natural nesting sites are abandoned woodpecker holes. These flycatchers may nest in a bird house if it’s placed about ten feet up in a tree in an orchard or at the edge of a field or stream.


Woodpeckers

You can attract all the woodpeckers with a suet feeder, but only the flicker and the red-
bellied are likely to use a bird house. They prefer a box with roughened interior and a floor covered with a two-inch layer of wood chips or coarse sawdust. Flickers are especially attracted to nest boxes filled with sawdust, which they “excavate” to suit themselves.

For best results, place the box high up on a tree trunk exposed to direct sunlight.


Owls

Most owls seldom build their own nests. Great horned and long-eared owls prefer abandoned crow and hawk nests. Other owls (barred, barn, saw-whet, boreal and screech) nest in tree cavities and birdhouses.

Barn owls are best known for selecting nesting sites near farms. Where trees are sparse, these birds will nest in church steeples, silos, and barns. If you live near a farm or a golf course, try fastening a nest box about 15 feet up on a tree trunk.

Screech owls prefer abandoned woodpecker holes at the edge of a field or neglected orchard. They will readily take to a boxes lined with an inch or two of wood shavings. If you clean the box out in late spring after the young owls have fledged, you may attract a second tenant—a kestrel. Trees isolated from larger tracts of woods have less chance of squirrels taking over the box.

For more tips and information like these, you should check out The Birding Manual and the other books in the Birding for Everyone package at http://www.complete-bird-watching-guide.com/birding-package.html.

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Birds You Can Attract to Nestboxes–Part 1

Posted on November 3, 2005 by Kathi

Many of the birds that visit bird feeders and birdbaths may stay and nest in nearby trees. Most of them, including cardinals, doves and orioles, don’t nest in boxes. You can still help them by considering their food and shelter requirements in your landscape plans. You can also hang out a wire cage full of nesting materials (fiber scraps, twigs, wool, or feathers) in the spring.

More than two dozen North American birds will nest in birdhouses. The following descriptions will help you determine which birds might visit your neighborhood.


Bluebirds

If you put up a bluebird house near an old field, orchard, park, cemetery, or golf course, you’ll have a good chance of attracting a pair of bluebirds. They prefer nest boxes on a tree stump or wooden fence post between three and five feet high. Bluebirds also nest in abandoned woodpecker nest holes. The most important measurement is the hole diameter. An inch and a half is small enough to deter starlings. Starlings and house sparrows have been known to kill baby bluebirds as well as adults sitting on the nest. Bluebirds have problems with other animals too. The easiest way to discourage predatory cats, snakes, raccoons, and chipmunks is to mount the house on a metal pole, or use a metal predator guard on a wood post.


Robins

Robins, my personal favorite, are our largest thrushes. They prefer to build their nest in the crotch of a tree. If you don’t have an appropriate tree, you can offer a nesting platform. Pick a spot six feet or higher up on a shaded tree trunk or under the overhang of a shed or porch. Creating a “mud puddle” nearby offers further excitement, as robins use mud to line their nests.


Chickadees, Nuthatches, and Titmice

Chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches share the same food, feeders, and habitats. If you put a properly designed nest box in a wooded yard, at least one pair is sure to check it out. Put chickadee houses at eye level. Hang them from limbs or secure them to tree trunks. The entrance hole should be 1-1/8″ to attract chickadees yet exclude house sparrows. Anchor houses for hatches on tree trunks five to six feet off the ground. You can encourage these birds to stay in your yard by continuing to fill your suet and peanut feeders through the summer.


Brown Creepers and Prothonotary Warblers

Look for brown creepers to nest behind the curved bark of tree trunks. In heavily wooded yards, slab bark houses will appeal to creepers. Prothonotary warblers also prefer slab bark houses, but theirs must be placed over water.


Wrens

Wrens don’t seem to be very picky about where they nest. Try nest boxes with a 1″ x 2″ horizontal slot (1-1/2″ x 2-1/2″ for the larger Carolina wrens) instead of a circle. These are easier for the wrens to use.

Wrens are notorious for filling up any conceivable nest cavity with twigs, regardless of whether they use the nest. Since male house wrens build several nests for the female to choose from, hang several nest boxes at eye level on partly sunlit tree limbs. Wrens are sociable and will accept nest boxes quite close to your house.


Tree and Violet-green Swallows

Tree swallows prefer nest boxes attached to dead trees. Space the boxes about seven feet apart for these white-bellied birds with iridescent blue-green backs and wings. The ideal setting for these insect-eaters is on the edge of a field near a lake, pond, or river. Violet-green swallows nest in forested mountains of the west; boxes placed on large trees in a semi-open woodland will attract them.


Barn Swallows and Phoebes

If you have the right habitat, barn swallows and phoebes are easy to attract. It’s their nesting behavior, not their plumage or song, which catches your attention. These birds tend to nest where you’d rather not have them: on a ledge right over your front door. To avoid a mess by your door, offer the birds a nesting shelf nearby where you’d rather have them.

For more tips and information like these, you should check out The Birding Manual and the other books in the Birding for Everyone package at http://www.complete-bird-watching-guide.com/birding-package.html.

Look for more on attracting wild birds to your yard in my next post! And if you’d like to contribute pictures or your own story about bird watching to this blog, write me at kathi AT complete-bird-watching-guide.com (replace the word AT with the @ sign). Look forward to hearing from you!

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