Bird Houses, what birds do you want in your garden?

[Gary350]

I am making repairs on my bird houses. I had very good luck with bird houses when I lived in town but out here in the country I am not having good luck getting wrens in my houses. Today I learned there is a problem with my blue bird house so I changed it. Maybe there will be blue birds in it this spring.

I hear wrens in my yard all summer but no luck getting them to live in my houses, I always had wrens in them when I lived in town.

Red Birds live in dense bushes not bird houses. I need to plant a bush.

I need to attract different birds? Do finches & chickadees live in houses? Does anyone have proven bird house plans that attract these 2 birds or other birds?

What birds do you like to have in your garden?

[xtron]

wrens and bluebirds are easy. they are the easiest houses to build, and there's lots of commercial units available.
I would love to have some purple martins around, but they are picky about how high, how close to trees, how much open ground, ect ect.. and the east coast isn't in their prime range, that's more mid-west.
weather I want them or not, I have cardinals .... the best thing about then is they keep the blue jays away... they are meaner than a jay.
birds are fine to have around as they keep some insects down, but I would rather work on more flowers to attract more pollinators.

[digitS']

I don't build birdhouses but have Song Sparrows in my distant garden every year. I just checked on the species and the online source said that they are ground nesters and do not often use birdhouses. Where "my" birds nest EVERY year is in a neighbor's raspberry/grape jungle. Cornell says that they often nest in rose bushes.

Song Sparrows are native birds yet live in our communities. Their population numbers have declined but they are not yet considered endangered. Cornell says that they have a varied diet.

The neighbor here at home has about a dozen birdhouses on her garage with, maybe, half of them filled with English Sparrows each year. The flock moves into another neighbor's small spruce trees to spend the winter. There were House Finches that would visit before those birdhouses showed up. The English Sparrows are very aggressive towards the finches and also run off the Chickadees. They don't push the Song Sparrows around so much but I don't see them around often here.

The Juncos apparently do not nest at this elevation but I don't see them often. We have California Quail here at home this winter. That's unusual and kind of fun but they are ALWAYS in the distant garden. I don't know if I would really want to encourage them as a garden companion, however. American Goldfinches can be in my garden and nesting nearby in substantial numbers but Cornell says that they live on seeds and will "only inadvertently" eat insects . I am always happy to see Chickadees. I bet that they are the top bug killers but the Song Sparrows must be right there with them on that list.

Steve

[SQWIB]

Not this one

[gumbo2176]

No pigeons or bluebirds. Pigeons are nothing more than winged rats, and living in the city sees a lot of them gathering anytime I put out food for the birds I want.

Bluebirds have been getting weird at my house this past summer with flying up on my porches and rooting in my potted plants scattering potting soil all over the porches and patio, almost on a daily basis. And it's only the bluebirds doing it even though I have several different varieties of birds that come around.

Sparrows, grackles, redwing blackbirds, cardinals, doves, hummingbirds and of course pigeons and bluebirds. When I had my Japanese Plum tree I would get a flock of parrots that would come by almost daily to eat their fill near the top of my tree where I just let the fruit be for them.

[Hillbilly Homer]

We have wren houses all over house/barn/garden area.
About 30 years ago dad came in the house one spring and declared the old case tractor off limits!
...A wren had made a nest in the cab...
...That tractor was not disturbed until fall when the wrens moved out...

[applestar]

Haha, I tip toe around them when they nest at inconvenient locations. My neighbor didn’t use her front door for weeks while Robin was nesting in her front door wreath. LOL

I’m not handy so I only use purchased bird houses, though I do buy Audubon and other birding organization approved/certified ones.

In my garden, I found out Bluebirds won’t nest here, most likely because the close housing of the cookie cutter development is not open enough. I tried putting up a house on my picket fence facing the sweeping front yard, but unfortunately, that direction faces North to Northwest, which is not particularly favored by any bird. Everywhere else, there are too many trees and other structures.

Bluebird houses with the larger opening are often taken over by House Sparrows, even if a House Wren tries to claim it or even when they have started a family, house sparrows can bully them out. THEN Cowbirds come along and oust their chicks to substitute with THEIR own. I do not like them. So once I found out that Bluebirds do not seem to be interested, I screwed on entry port limiters to reduce the hole size to only allow Chickadees and House Wrens to enter. House Wrens are more likely than Chickadees, but at least one family of Chickadees use one of my bird house boxes every year. I have one old, unaltered bluebird house left that is inside a shrubbery next to a family room window. This one is occupied every year by Carolina Wrens. They are too big for the reduced hole size, but I’m guessing the shady shrubbery location is not to house sparrows’ liking.

I had a Downy Woodpecker trying out one of the other unaltered bluebird houses, but eventually House Sparrows won that box... and filled it with all kinds of trash from the neighborhood — candy wrappers, grocery bag pieces, newspaper sleeves, audio tape... sticking out of the hole. It looked so messy and I really didn’t want to see up in the tree any more... then one day the box got raided by something — all the mess had been pulled out and had been scattered on the ground. I took the opportunity to empty it completely. After it was emptied, I think a male House Wren tried to entice a female to it but it was rejected.

More often Robins but also Cardinals nest in trees, shrubbery, and vines on trellises in my garden, as well as Song Sparrows. I think Cardinals prefer the denser shrubbery and trees. My neighbor’s hedge trimmed Juniper shrubs always host Grackles (Grackles are not welcome at feeders but they do seem to Patrol my garden for snails and slugs, sometimes cutworm type pests while they are feeding protein to their chicks. They are messy at birdbaths as well — my neighbor throws out bread and the Grackles bring the bread to soak in my birdbaths....). Another neighbor had House Finches nesting in her hanging basket.... which got raided by Cowbirds and all of their chicks were thrown out onto the porch floor, leaving only the giant chick in the nest and the House Finch pair-“parents” desperately feeding it. Ugh. Mourning Doves make poor excuse for a nest on a convenient upward supporting crotch of branches or vines — they usually nest in the crown of my weeping cherry tree (this location is sometimes pre-emptied by Robin’s) or weeping blue spruce.

I have seen Titmouse inspecting (going in and out of) the bird houses, but maybe those are just males and females have rejected? I have not seen them actually using/nesting in them.

I would love to see Hummingbirds nesting in my garden, but so far they only visit.

Luckily, I have a small woods/copse behind my property where some wild birds that will not use birdhouses nest, and they visit my garden.

[applestar]

Oh I forgot — Juncos — I think they might be nesting in the undergrowths of the woods behind the property. I don’t often go all the way to the back fence in the winter, but when I do, I always hear rusting noises and see them flitting around on the grind. They migrate here in the fall as Robins move out, and fly back north as Robins come back in spring.

They seem to like to feed on grass, weed, and herb seeds that are left standing in the garden and are a constant presence during the winter.

[jal_ut]

Want wrens? Build your houses with 4x4x8 inch inside dimensions and use a 1 1/8 inch hole. Put the hole 6 inches above the floor. This sized hole will exclude the E. Sparrow. Have fun!

[imafan26]

You have some nice birds. For myself, I prefer the birds stay away. I would rather invite beneficial insects in instead. Most of the birds that come to my yard prefer to eat my chilli peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, papaya, and seeds out of the pots. The cattle egret does eat insects but will also eat a few lizards as well. So far nothing eats slugs and snails in my yard.

[!potatoes!]

I keep meaning to get some birdhouses up, but we've always got a lot of wrens, bluebirds, and phoebes around on duty already (the latter regularly build nests above the windows on the house).

[applestar]

Ooh looked up phoebe — I think I’ve seen those around. Dark head and the white with bright yellow chiffon underbelly.

Those and warblers, kinglets, etc. are migrants that I’m not always sure of. When it’s super cold, we have red poles visiting. I see Pine Siskin, too. But none of these nest around here as far as I know. Gold finches live in the area year-round and frequently visit to eat but I don’t think they nest around here. Some are just too shy — like Nuthatches. But I’m still hoping the Titmouse will decide to try the nest boxes.


One bird you DON’T want to have nesting is Starling. They like to nest in the house side vents for the dryer and bathroom fan unless the flap/cover is properly operating. If they see a flap that doesn’t close properly or is partly damaged, they will push their way in and break it to gain access. I once lived in a rented house where the backdoorstep overhang roof’s rain gutter was re-arranged in a weird way and an open hole was left in the corner of the covered ceiling where the downspout used to come out. Starlings nested inside that hole every year.

[SQWIB]

Ooh looked up phoebe — I think I’ve seen those around. Dark head and the white with bright yellow chiffon underbelly.


One bird you DON’T want to have nesting is Starling. They like to nest in the house side vents for the dryer and bathroom fan unless the flap/cover is properly operating. If they see a flap that doesn’t close properly or is partly damaged, they will push their way in and break it to gain access. I once lived in a rented house where the backdoorstep overhang roof’s rain gutter was re-arranged in a weird way and an open hole was left in the corner of the covered ceiling where the downspout used to come out. Starlings nested inside that hole every year.

Yep, was wondering why my clothes smelled weird after coming out of the dryer. Got the flap fixed!

[Gary350]

I have built some chickadee houses by the Audubon organization information. Hole is 1 1/8" that is large enough for a sparrow but the 5x5x5 house is too small for a sparrow family. Other chickadee houses online say, 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" hole. I found a Tee Pee shape chickadee house video on YouTube that shows birds going in and out of the triangle shape house.

Years ago I learned it is best to build 5 of each size & shape house all with a different size hole then let the birds decide which house they like best. Another thing I learned long ago, if a bird house is not getting enough shade, does not have enough air ventilation holes, faces west in the hottest part of the day, is not mounted the correct height, birds will not stay in it. Another interesting thing, if I build 25 bird houses all sizes & shapes with different size holes & mounted about 8' high a variety of birds will pick the house they like best. Smaller houses for smaller birds need to be closer to the ground that must have to do with how far baby birds have to fall when they take their first jump.

In the past I have built Wrens houses because I love song birds that eat their body weight in bugs ever day. Wrens are late to arrive usually about May 20. They often build a nest in 3 different houses but lay eggs only in 1 house. Wrens chirp their lungs out singing all summer, they are so funny they will land 6 ft away look right at me and chirp over and over and over like they are trying to tell me something. LOL.

I love mockingbirds too they sing none stop all summer they have a dozen different songs they sing. They are often setting on the roof cutters or in a trees singing & loud enough to be heard anyway where in the yard. It is amazing such a small bird can sing none stop so loud all day and not get a sore throat. LOL.

I often don't notice that I have blue birds until June by then they have already been here several weeks and gone a few weeks later. They keep their distance it is rare to see one up close.

Last year I had Titmouse birds in a tiny house that I never really expected to have birds in such a small house. It was fun to watch them come and go then 1 day they were gone. I never saw the babies.

WHY does a woodpecker never get a brain concussion. They are cute birds that sound like tiny little jack hammers in the trees.

[Gary350]

Spring I see a lot of birds that I never see any other time of the year, maybe they are passing through on the way south. Summer I see birds that I don't know what they are. I wonder if there is a way to find the names and photos of birds in my geographical area?

Bird Audubon society has bird house plans if I know the name of the bird. It says to put soft stuff inside the house to encourage birds to next there. I put several different things is a variety of houses let the birds decide what they like. I have a lot of saw dust and pine needles.

I built 26 birds houses from lumber I have laying around. Houses for, titmouse, chickadee, wrens, blue bird. Any other small birds that like these houses are welcome to move in. I still need 2 more bird houses. I found a variety of different plans for each bird so I built all the different sizes and shapes with different hole diameters and locations. Wish I knew the name of these other birds that I see then I could built a house for them unless some of the houses I already have will work.

I looked up bird names everyone suggested, those are some of the birds I see in our yard that I never knew there names. Warblers bird house is same as the wren house. There is 1 tiny bird that I see, could be a titmouse, it has a pointed red cap & same gray color & size as a titmouse, it made a nest last year and was gone in 2 months. All my houses are move in ready.