Part 3: Birds You Can Attract to Your Bird Houses and Nest Boxes

This is a continuing series on attracting birds to your yard.

Tree and Violet-green Swallows

Tree swallows prefer bird houses and nest boxes attached to dead trees. Space the birdhouses  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; birdhouses 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, that 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 birdhouse  nearby where you'd rather have them. 

Please check out the vast array of bird houses at www.aboutbirdhouses.com.

Part 2: Birds You Can Attract to Your Bird Houses and Nest Boxes

Chickadees, Nuthatches, and Titmice

Chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches share the same food, feeders, and habitats. If you put a properly designed bird house in a wooded yard, at least one pair is sure to check it out.

Place chickadee birdhouse 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 bird 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 bird houses 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 bird houses at eye level on partly sunlit tree limbs. Wrens are sociable and will accept birdhouses quite close to your house. 

See a great selection of birdhouses at www.aboutbirdhouses.com.

 

BIRDS YOU CAN ATTRACT TO YOUR BIRD HOUSES AND NEST BOXES

Many of the birds that visit feeders and baths may stay and nest in nearby trees. Most of them, including cardinals, doves and orioles, don't nest in bird houses or nesting 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 bird houses. The following descriptions will help you determine which birds might visit your neighborhood. 

Bluebirds  

If you put up bluebird birdhouses near an old field, orchard, park, cemetery, or golf course, you'll have a good chance of attracting a pair of bluebirds. They prefer bird houses 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 for a bluebird birdhouse 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 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.  

Please check out the vast array of bird houses at www.aboutbirdhouses.com.