Ways To Make Your Birdhouse The Talk Of The (Bird) Town
If you're planning to get a birdhouse or two and want to really make those houses desirable for birds, you can take a few steps that won't cost you a lot of time or money. Birdhouses offer excellent protection for nests and eggs, and they help shelter birds from inclement weather. If you want to increase your chances of seeing little feathered friends year after year, take a look at these tips.
Know Your Birds
Know which types of birds you want to attract. You could just get a cute house and hope something shows up. But attracting birds involves providing the right type of house, the right type of protection, and the right type of location. For example, Birds and Blooms notes that chickadees like their houses to be relatively sheltered and hidden in a thicket, which can be composed of either small trees or shrubs. However, purple martins want a house that is on a pole that's out in the open. Martins also prefer the apartment-style birdhouses, as opposed to the single-bird-family house. Put the wrong style of house in the wrong location, and you might not get any birds to check in for the season.
Know Your Predators
Birds are targets for several animals, from house cats and raccoons to snakes and larger birds that want to eat the smaller birds' eggs. You'll have to set up protection for that house depending on what's in your area. It's best to assume that the basic predators will all be present, so place guards and baffles on the poles of birdhouses to ward off climbing snakes, raccoons, and housecats; add special, commercially available mesh tunnels to the openings to prevent snakes from getting in; add metal reinforcements to the opening of the house to prevent squirrels from chewing to make the entry hole larger; and move the house away from trees if tree-dwelling snakes and cats are a risk (that does pose a problem if the birds you want to attract prefer to be near trees, but do your best).
By the way, always be careful when you interact with a house that's been sitting in your yard for a while. You don't want to place a few fingers in the opening hole only to get a snake bite!
Treat Your Birds
In addition to letting birds find food themselves, you can treat them occasionally with a birdseed ornament. These are shapes made from birdseed held together with gelatin and corn syrup that you can hang near the birdhouse. These are convenient sources of food for tired birds and for birds during times when other food might not be as easy to find.
Treat the Birdhouse
Ensure that, whatever type of house you get, it's been treated to withstand weather. You don't want that cute wooden house to rot after rain. Commercially available houses should have been treated properly to ensure long-lasting performance and shelter.
It can take a little time to decide on exactly what you want to be in your yard. But once you find the right house and get it installed, you can sit back and see what shows up.