The Right Nesting Box Attracts Birds

Even if you have a small area, you can attract nesting birds, in season.

One of the greatest experiences you can have in observing nature is the nesting activities of birds.

You can view the courtship, nest building, hatching, feeding and finally the fledging of these young birds.

There are four basic locations for nests: 

	Some birds nest in cavities, such as tree holes, nesting boxes (bird houses) or nooks of buildings.  These birds are known as cavity nesters, this group includes woodpeckers, bluebirds, chickadees and 85 other species of birds in North America.
	Many other birds build their nests in the open on branches of shrubs or trees.  These nests are cup shape and open to the sky and are built by birds like goldfinches, robins and mockingbirds.
	Most of the remaining birds build their nests on the ground, either by building an open cup or by scraping a shallow depression in the ground.  Common ground nesters include killdeer, pheasants and even some warblers.  Loose cats and dogs re the second biggest cause in the decline of ground nesting birds; the first being lost of habitat.
	The fourth situation is used by a hand full of birds.  This location is underground or in a creek bed, such as belted kingfishers.

Many people mistakenly believe that you need a vast property to attract birds to a nesting box.  This is not true.  Those who have small yards are able to attract house wrens, titmice and chickadees although they have less than a quarter acre of ground.

 A properly designed nesting box must meet certain criteria:

1.      It should be built to the specific dimensions required to attract a particular bird.

2.      It should be made of wood five-eighths to three-quarters of an inch thick.  Wood is a natural material that expands and contracts with the weather.  The wood should not be painted, stained or coated in any way.  Also it should not be made of plywood or pressure treated wood.

3.      The nesting box should have proper ventilation, either by holes or slits in the top or sides.

4.      The bird house must have drainage holes or slits in the bottom so that water can drain out and not accumulate.

5.      There should be an easy way to clean out the bird house after each brood.  The top, front or side should swing open.

6.      For certain species, on the inside of the box under the entrance hole there should be horizontal grooves to help the young crawl to the hole when ready to fledge.

7.      A bird house should not have a perch!  Our native species of cavity nesting birds are clinging birds and do not need perches.  Perches will make the nesting box more receptive to non-native species such as starlings and house sparrows.

8.      It is desirable to have a roof overhanging the entrance hole by an inch or so to protect it from the sun and rain.

 Many people mount their nesting boxes directly to a tree, the two screws you use should not hurt a healthy, mature tree. but poles can also be used to mount bird houses.

 Given the rapidly increasing destruction of suitable nesting habitat, providing nesting boxes is not only a pleasure for us, but very important to many bird's survival.

                                                                                                          ©2007, MICKEY WESLER