If you want to save time and money and make some beautiful and practical birdhouses that birds will use year after year, you need this information!
Providing houses for cavity nesting birds is a popular hobby for people who enjoy wildlife around their homes. Building birdhouses according to proper specifications, placing them in the “best” habitat and maintaining the houses regularly can benefit both the birds and us. However, if not built and placed properly, you might have no visitors at all. So here are the ten most important things you need to know about building birdhouses.
#1 - DO NOT use any type of pressure treated wood. It is toxic to birds.
If you use recycled wood, make sure it was not treated with creosote or painted with paint containing lead. If in doubt don’t use it!
#2 - DO NOT put perches on any birdhouse. Only house sparrows and European starlings prefer perches. If you have a house with a perch, remove the perch.
#3 - Provide a hinged side or roof so the house can be easily checked and cleaned each season.
#4 - At least four 1/4 inch diameter drain holes should be drilled in the bottom of every house and at least two 1/4 inch holes should be drilled near the top of the right and left sides of all bird houses to provide ventilation. The exceptions are duck boxes and winter roost boxes. Providing adequate ventilation is especially important for small bird houses.
#5 - The top-front edge of a bird house should overhang at least two inches to help protect the entrance hole from wind-driven rain and to keep cats from reaching in from above.
#6 - To construct a long lasting birdhouse use 1 5/8” exterior screws. Use galvanized nails to build houses only if necessary, but remember that they loosen up as wood expands and contracts in extreme weather conditions.
#7 - The sides of a bird house should enclose the floorboard; don’t nail them to the top of the floorboard. This arrangement prevents rain from seeping between sides and floor and then into the nest. Recess the floorboard 1/4” up from the bottom of the sides to help prevent deterioration caused by moisture.
#8 - Do not use tin cans, milk cartons or metal as nest box materials. Metals heat up in direct sun, overheat the eggs, and kill the young. However, commercial martin houses made from aluminum are acceptable. Commercial plastic wood duck houses are also acceptable, but should be placed in shady locations.
#9 - Wood is the best material for houses. Three-quarter-inch boards are the easiest to work with. Softwood such as pine is fine for smaller nests, but cedar, redwood or cypress should be used for larger boxes.
#10 - Make sure your construction will not injure the birds, no protruding screw or nail points.
Keep in mind these houses are for the birds. You can paint and decorate them to look like a Swiss chalet or a Frank Lloyd Wright home but birds don’t care and may even be repelled by such gaudiness. Exterior finishes are a matter of personal preference. In fact unfinished structures made of cedar, redwood, pine, spruce or exterior plywood will turn gray and last for years. The simpler, the better! If you want a colored structure, semi-transparent oil-base stains are best. They will penetrate the wood. A single application will last three years on a smooth surface, longer on a rough one. Select a stain that does not contain pentachlorophenol preservative.
You will love the satisfaction you receive from building your own birdhouses and you will help increase the wild bird population in your area so we can all enjoy these wonderful creatures.
Larry Jordan has been bird watching for many years and building birdhouses for over 26 years.
