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BIRD HOUSES BATHS AND FEEDING SHELTERS HOW TO MAKE AND WHERE TO PLACE THEM
BIRD HOUSES BATHS AND FEEDING SHELTERS HOW TO MAKE AND WHERE TO PLACE THEM
EDMUND J. SAWYER CRANBROOK INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE Bulletin No. 1, Fifth Edition Fifth Edition Copyright 1955 by The Cranbrook Institute of Science Bloomfield Hills, Michigan First printed as “Bird Houses” First Edition, March, 1931, 2000 copies Second Edition, February, 1938, 1500 copies Revised and enlarged to include western species, baths, and shelters Third Edition, December, 1940, 3000 copies Fourth Edition, June, 1944, 5000 copies June, 1951, 4000 copies Fifth Edition, July, 1955, 6000 copie
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Foreword
Foreword
Most species of the smaller birds which nest in hollow trees, and therefore in bird houses, suffer seriously from intrusion by English Sparrows and European Starlings. These two species, nesting in similar locations and being prolific, tend to take up all available nesting cavities, even ejecting native birds which have built or begun to build. This condition, already serious, may become far more baneful than we are as yet able to realize. It may even contribute to the eventual extinction of Blu
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Some Current Notions Corrected
Some Current Notions Corrected
Attention should be called to some common misconceptions. The colony bird house, or any bird house with more than one compartment, is always a mistake unless it has been designed for Purple Martins. Yet certain firms have for years been advertising “wren houses” of four or more chambers. One who knows this pugnacious little bird tries in vain to imagine two pairs of wrens living peaceably under one small roof! Every bird house should consist of one, and only one, chamber—with the single exceptio
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Material
Material
Wood is the material par excellence for the bird house, the only material which can be unreservedly recommended. Substitutes have been used with varying degrees of success or failure. What glass is for the window, wood is for the bird house. First, the birds are habituated to it. It is a good nonconductor of heat, it resists rain and extremes of temperature, and it can be made to harmonize with its setting. Over a long period of time it improves, rather than suffers, from exposure to the weather
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Entrance
Entrance
There is always danger of the wood splitting when too large an auger hole is attempted. Before assembling the bird house, make an entrance in the front board. Start by drawing a circle the exact size of the doorway-to-be. Then, just inside this circle, bore four holes at equal intervals, using a bit not larger than ⅜ inch for the smaller entrances; not larger than ¾ inch for the larger entrances. It will now be not too difficult, by use of a keyhole saw or pocketknife and wood-rasp, to remove th
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Nails
Nails
When a bird house is fastened to a support by the “toe-nail” method (by driving nails at a slant through the sides and bottom), it is a good point first to drill holes of the right diameter to fit the nails tightly; otherwise splitting of the sides or bottom of the house may result. Use flat-headed nails....
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Slabs
Slabs
When slabs are used in house-building, the upright pieces may be fastened to each other, at intervals of several inches, with a wire staple having ¾-inch prongs one inch apart. These should be on the outside of the house, where rust will color them to conform with the rustic wood....
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Facilities for House Cleaning
Facilities for House Cleaning
For inspecting the nest and, at the end of the season, for cleaning out the old nest material, the top or some other section of the house should always be easily removable. Exceptions to this rule are houses for ducks and other larger birds, for which the entrance may be large enough and the depth not too great for all such purposes. Do not open a house in the owner’s presence. The more brief and infrequent your inspections, the less they will disturb the birds....
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Position of Boxes
Position of Boxes
Bird houses erected on poles are safer from predators than those placed in trees. Houses for Purple Martins, in particular, need to be at a distance from trees and buildings, and if possible near water. Place your bird house where the sun will reach it during part of the day, and turn the entrance away from the prevailing winds. It seems hardly necessary to emphasize that, if possible, the bird house, as well as the bird bath and feeding station, should be placed in full view of a convenient win
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Undesired Tenants
Undesired Tenants
The author once with complete success contrived and operated a mechanical “bouncer” to meet a particular and aggravated instance of bird trespassers. In case of interference with any desired tenant or prospective tenant by rivals for the same bird house, the interfering birds may be driven away by this device. Figure 1. Discouraging the Uninvited Guest. One end of a stout cord is attached at some point close below the bird house. To this cord a rag or a piece of waxed paper about man’s-handkerch
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Thickets
Thickets
“Reserves” of the favorite environment are as much a need for some species as bird houses are for others. Widespread “improvement” and “beautification” along roadsides is destroying the thicket, the favored haunt of Song Sparrows, Catbirds, certain warblers, quail, and other desirable species. A “reserve” thicket may be located in a secluded part of the home grounds, hidden by a hedge if considered unsightly. It may be almost any shape, but not less than 20 feet in average diameter or much less
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Dimensions for Various Houses
Dimensions for Various Houses
Following are specifications and remarks on the housing requirements of the birds by species. For related forms not included in the table see text. Plate III. A Simple and Effective Box Bird House For House Wrens, Bluebirds, and Tree Swallows, especially. For these the house may be of weathered fence-boards or even, if need be, of new lumber stained some dull tint. For chickadees, nuthatches, and Tufted Titmice, rough “slab” material is preferable. Dimensions given are for the House Wren. For ot
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Other Wrens
Other Wrens
For the Bewick’s Wren, which commonly nests around gardens, barns, and dwellings, the building directions are the same as for the House Wren. The Carolina Wren of the south, more inclined to seek woods and thickets than to court man’s society, is not ordinarily a bird house tenant. Still, a home like that described for the House Wren, but with the entrance having a diameter of 1¼ inch, is not unlikely to be selected by the Carolina if placed in a brushy area frequented by him and not much freque
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Other Chickadees
Other Chickadees
The Mountain and other chickadees share the natural nesting habits of the Black-cap. Since this group is composed of birds of practically uniform size, a house for any species should be the same as that described for the Black-cap. However, chickadees are in general birds of the woods. Few or none come so near to being birds of “home grounds” as do the Black-caps. Houses for them, therefore, will be appropriate chiefly about woods homes or camps. All that has been written of the chickadee and hi
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Other Nuthatches
Other Nuthatches
The western subspecies of the White-breasted Nuthatch occur chiefly in less settled or more restricted ranges, and they are apt to be less accustomed to, as well as less accessible for, bird houses. The Red-breasted, Brown-headed, and other small nuthatches share the hollow-tree nesting habit common to the family. They prefer locations of the wilder kind, so that the usual bird house is not likely to entice them away from less sophisticated haunts. Yet it appears likely that any of the species m
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The Tufted Titmouse
The Tufted Titmouse
The Tufted Titmouse is common in the south, where its distribution is also much more uniform than in the north. In some places it has pushed far toward our northern border, but there it is inclined to be of only local and irregular occurrence. In general it becomes more and more a bird of the wilder areas as it advances northward. Usually a wood or woodside location will be the one most likely to entice this species to a bird house. When and where the bird is found to linger about residences tow
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Other Swallows
Other Swallows
For the beautiful Violet-green Swallow build exactly as for the Tree Swallow. Where, in the west, both species occur, there is the chance that a house intended for the Violet-green will be taken by the Tree Swallow. This chance, otherwise more than an even one, may be lessened by catering to the Violet-green’s observed choice of local haunts. Barn Swallows will sometimes use ledges, such as those described for the Robin ( page 29 ), when these are sheltered. Beautiful, cheerful, demure, raising
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Other Bluebirds
Other Bluebirds
The Western Bluebird fills the same role on the ranges and ranches that is taken on the smaller farms of the east by his eastern namesake. Build and place the house for the one precisely as for the other. The western bird seems much more inclined than the eastern to adopt nesting sites in or close to human dwellings. The Mountain Bluebird will use the same type of house; its location, of course, should correspond with the local haunts of the species....
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The Crested Flycatcher
The Crested Flycatcher
There is a peculiar satisfaction in successfully providing a house for those species, such as the Crested Flycatcher, which do not ordinarily resort to artificial nesting sites. It is something of a “feather in the cap.” Select a dilapidated orchard or an out-of-the-way woodside as a location for the Flycatcher’s house; place the house and await the results with expectations not too sanguine. Should fortune favor you with an opportunity to watch these birds building, remember to look for the fam
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The Flicker
The Flicker
In general the woodpeckers choose to build their own houses. But as the Flicker is so unlike other woodpeckers in appearance and in certain of his well-known ways, it is not surprising to learn that he will readily take possession of an artificial bird house. Naturally, a woodpecker (and the Flicker is that) is scarcely an exception to the rule that bird-house tenants prefer something along the general lines of a woodpecker’s work. A section of a hollow trunk or branch of the proper dimensions i
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The Purple Martin
The Purple Martin
This is the only desirable colony-forming bird-house tenant. Therefore the apartment type of house is a waste of material unless intended for Purple Martins and designed accordingly. Of the desirable bird-house clientele, none is quite so sophisticated as the Martins in the matter of a satisfactory location. If it is only so much as a biscuit-toss from the ground, the martin house may grace a bandstand, a village railroad station, or a busy village square. The house itself may be one of those ad
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The Tree-nesting Ducks
The Tree-nesting Ducks
In suitable locations artificial sites may be provided for any of the several wild ducks which ordinarily nest in hollow trees. These ducks, as breeding species, are mostly northern, the Wood Duck being almost the only one which regularly nests, except at the higher elevations, very much south of the northern United States border. The Hooded Merganser may appropriate the house intended for the Wood Duck, and vice versa. Figure 3. An easy-to-make box, especially suitable for ducks. Front and top
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Hawks and Owls
Hawks and Owls
We have alluded to undesirable tenants, meaning usually, or in particular, the English Sparrow and European Starling. There is also another class of possible bird-house occupants to be dealt with—the owls and the Sparrow Hawk. The owls and the hawks are usually considered taboo on account of their fondness for the smaller birds which most persons wish to encourage. One does not ordinarily keep cats and canaries in the same restricted and common area and expect pleasing results. Yet, it may be qu
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The Common House Finch
The Common House Finch
The several western and extreme southwestern forms of the native House Finch may, for our present purposes, be grouped with birds like the Robin and Phoebe which find such a number and variety of chance but suitable nesting sites that to provide still others may seem superfluous effort. And yet, to see the bright red of the Common House Finch and to hear his cheery song, say, in the heart of a city like Denver where one looks only for English Sparrows, is to be tempted to offer this citizen a mo
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Robin and Phoebe
Robin and Phoebe
These birds are not classed as bird-house tenants. When they nest in a building, it is nearly always a deserted human dwelling or some other structure made originally for man’s own use. In other words, the only sort of bird house at all likely to attract Robin or Phoebe would be one of cavern-like proportions in keeping with one type of natural site which both species favor, especially the Phoebe. The architecture of most human dwellings is such that either Robin or Phoebe would find nesting-sit
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Bird Baths
Bird Baths
Birds are inveterate bathers. Bathing is the daily habit of Robins, Catbirds, goldfinches, Song Sparrows, and most other small species, whenever facilities are available. Artificial baths are most important where other bathing places are distant or inadequate. In times of drought, birds will resort so eagerly to baths as to form an almost continuous daily procession. The bird bath lends itself to endless variations in size, shape, style, material, and cost. Often one may find a large boulder whi
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Food Stations
Food Stations
Food is the chief problem of winter birds. Cold alone is scarcely a menace, while snow and sleet are chiefly harmful only when they cover up the food. Given proper food, the only real requirement for a feeding station from the birds’ point of view is that it shall keep the food available, as by providing a roof to shed snow and ice. Among the wide variety of birds which frequently patronize food stations, various members of the sparrow and finch family, which includes the grosbeaks, juncos, and
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