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

[Gary350]

This prison bar feeder only allows small birds in. This type feed was $25 at the store made out of wire. I made this with 2 pieces of scrap 1/4" plywood and limbs from a back yard tree. This will keep out the Blue Jays. This gives me an idea for another bird house.

[Gary350]

1 more feeder for small birds. Wife must be trying to make the birds fat look at all that seed she put in there. LOL

[Gary350]

Bird Buffet seems to be working sun has been up 20 minutes and there are too many birds to count maybe 15 to 18. There are 2 Wrens, I have never seen Wrens this time of the year. Doves are more aggressive than I realized they are keeping the Blue Jays away. Doves even scared off the 1 and only Black bird. The 2 black spotted wood peckers are cute but not close enough for me to get a good photo. I have a few pics of the red color sparrows. There are 4 of these cute birds I have been trying very hard to get pictures of but they are very quick. These cute birds land and grab 1 sunflower seed then go up into the tree to eat it. It take the bird about 60 seconds to hammer that sunflower seed open to eat the inside then they fly down grab 1 seed and fly off again. It is 27 degrees this morning bird water is frozen.

[Gary350]

Cute bird again, light color breast, orange/brown color under the wings, gray/blue color on tip, pointy feather head. I can not find this bird in my book or online either. Pic is blurred.

[Gary350]

This is a better pic of the bird in the tree slightly above and to the left of center. You can see its colors better.

[Gary350]

Here is a pic of the red color sparrows. There always seems to be 2 birds together, 1 has red color the other one does not.

[applestar]

The cute grey bird is almost certainly the Tufted Titmouse. The rusty body/side under the wings is distinctive:
Tufted Titmouse, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tufted_titmouse/id

The red colored “sparrow” is the House Finch. They are somewhat larger than the other finches, which makes you tend to think “sparrow”. Male has the red coloring, females are drab brown all over. They will visit finch feeders with the Goldfinches, and are often seen feeding together even on plant seeds in the garden.

If it is redder — softer darker red, not so orange — all over the head, face and shoulders, I would think it is a Purple Finch.

— I don’t know if they actually flock together — usually, I see the goldfinches flying in a flock by themselves — maybe they are simply attracted to the same food and happened to visit at the time — and/or — they are just used to feeding at the same place at the same time from visiting the feeders together and are unconcerned about mingling while feeding.

In my area, other finch feeder birds that sometimes visit during really cold temp winters are Pine Siskin which look like smaller than normal female House Finch but has a yellow marking ...somewhere that I can’t remember..oh, wings! — and Common Redpoll which are also tiny and just have a sort of a red speck/stripe on their crown that makes me think “odd looking tiny male House/Purple Finch”.

[jal_ut]

Birds appreciate a water source.

Lessee........ this was about Bird Houses. I make houses for wrens and Flickers. Sure as you put up a house for a Flicker you will have a pair of starlings in it. So what to do to get the starlings to leave it alone?

[Gary350]

The cute grey bird is almost certainly the Tufted Titmouse. The rusty body/side under the wings is distinctive:
Tufted Titmouse, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tufted_titmouse/id

Applestar this link is a very good source of information. The plans are more detailed than other plans I found. Much better information about birds too. I built 2 more bird houses by the Titmouse Plans. Information says the house must be on a 10 ft pole which I have about 20 of in a pile out back. Now that the 2 new houses are up I realize they need to be relocated to a different place away from the house and near the trees. The link says, titmouse like being near tall trees and forest. There is no information about how many bugs titmouse birds eat or if they eat bugs.

[Gary350]

You can see both new titmouse houses in this photo. You can also see 14 bird houses and 8 bird feeders. These 2 new houses makes 37 bird houses.

[Gary350]

James you are correct, every thing I read says water is the #1 attraction for birds. Next I need to shop for a small bird pond, fountain, and other sources of water for birds. We already have a bird bath. I have about 15 water containers for the garden it keeps birds from pecking my tomatoes to get a drink of water.

This sure is a cute bird, very nice pic of the 4 titmouse birds that are coming to the bird feeders.

[Gary350]

We bought 2 ceramic bird houses at a yard sale. I'm not sure any bird will live in these, we will have to wait & see. This makes 39 bird houses. LOL.

[Gary350]

The bird feeders are very popular every day, 3 to 18 birds all the time. Most popular seeds are black sunflower seeds. I have 2 kinds of seed, mixed bird seed & sunflower seed. Birds fight over the sunflower seeds, soon as they are gone the mixed bird seed is not very popular. Birds are very fast it is very hard to get good pictures. Little birds land for 1/2 second, grab 1 seed then they are gone up into a trees to eat it, larger birds are not so shy. Today I keep seeing, 4 titmouse, 2 chickadee, 2 red birds, 1 mocking birds, 1 spotted red head wood pecker, 2 brown sparrows, 1 red head sparrow. No doves, no blue jays, today. It has been raining slow all day birds not bothered much by the rain. Few days ago when it was raining hard on & off all day birds stayed inside the bird houses, when rain slowed down they fly out to eat sunflower seeds. I need a better camera it is hard to get a good photo in 1/2 a second. I keep moving the table closer and closer to the back door to get better pics but birds are quick. Other bird feeders are too far away to get a good picture.

[jal_ut]

Hmmmm........ I went looking for a picture of a birdhouse, and didn't come up with much ........ but gotta give you something: http://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/well ... sville.htm

[Gary350]

Small birds are fun to watch inside the prison feeder. Little birds are not worried much about larger birds while they are in there. Sometimes there are 2 small birds inside for a short time then one leaves and another one arrives. Today 2 Red birds are trying to find a way to get inside the prison feeder. 38 degrees and lots of birds to watch. Maybe when it gets warmer I can set at the patio table and birds will get accustom to me being there and not fly away. It was 70 degrees a few days ago wrens are the funniest birds I was setting at the patio table a wren lands on the other side of the table an looks right at me then chirps over & over & over like it is telling me something. I think I was being told to get away. LOL. Other birds have their own limit to how close they will get. Birds have gotten use to the cats sleeping in the patio chairs 8 ft away and the dog sleeping in the recliner chair 12 ft away but birds are not use to me yet. When weather gets nice we eat breakfast, lunch an dinner on the patio table we hope the birds get friendlier.