How to Choose a Bird House
This has been a long, cold winter. I am so ready for spring and filling up the bird feeders. I love watching the birds outside my kitchen window every day and enjoy their singing every morning when I wake up. Early spring is the best time to start thinking about installing new bird houses. You’ll also want to check any bird houses that you already have set out to see if they need any repairs. Did you know that each kind of bird can require a different bird house? I only have a few different kinds but would love to start adding more. Here are some tips on how to choose a bird house.
1. What kind of birds do you want to attract? Some common types of birds are wrens, bluebirds, chickadees, titmice, tree swallows, purple martins, wood ducks, screech-owls, american robins and woodpeckers. Woodpeckers can be pesky little burgers. I have to admit though, I love listening to them peck on a tree or some type of wood. They are so much fun to watch too. If they’re pecking on the wood on your house, it’s probably not as much fun! You can l earn more about each bird species at National Wildlife.
2. What size of bird house will you need? Bird houses can be made into any shape, size or color. YardEnvy.com has a very large selection of decorative bird houses in different shapes and sizes. When it comes to size, you need to think about the entrance hole size, floor size and entrance height. You don’t want a woodpecker pitching tent in the home of a little wren!
3. What type of heating and cooling do you need? Obviously you aren’t going to install an air conditioner in the bird house but you do need to think about proper ventilation and ease of cooling in the summer or ease of warmth in the winter. For the winter you need to select a bird house with thicker walls, therefore trapping in more heat.
4. What type of drainage does your bird house need? You don’t want to flood your little birds out so you need to make sure the bird house you select has proper drain holes. It’s also important to offer a roof overhand so rain doesn’t enter their home.
Those are just a few of the tips on how to choose a bird house. You can also check out this great video on how to choose a bird house.
Do you have any other tips that we should consider? What’s your favorite bird to watch during spring?
6 responses to “How to Choose a Bird House”
Thanks for the useful information on housing birds. I have tried a couple of times to do so without success. Now I have a better guide to help me build for my backyard gang.
Do you know, off the top of your head, what kind of birdhouse you need to detract bluejay/birds and ATTRACT Cardinals???
Bluejays/bird are badluck!!!
Jays & bluebirds are 2 different birds. Bluebirds only nest in a very specific type house placed at the right height & far enough away from all shrubs of trees. Jays nest in the crotch of trees & that’s hard to control. Never heard of either being bad luck, they bring me much joy watching them.
We have a few birdhouses around the front and backyard, also have a few bird feeders, which the squirrels seem to always get there way in the bird feeders and eat the bird seed.
Thank you for the information. I am a big animal lover and enjoy watching the birds in my yard. My mother had great luck attracting bats with a bat house. She was able to get rid of a lot of her mosquitoes when the bats were around.
I have seagulls…Sneagulls we call them. Obnoxious loud birds that eat all the scraps from every meal. They are happy. My neighbors are not LOL :o)
On your Instagram I like the videos of cows. I miss the country.