Bird House Material.
Great varieties of houses can be constructed of half inch lumber and can be made very attractive to the eye. Other material, however, can be utilized.
The most natural Bird Homes, and such as may often be provided with the least trouble, are pieces of hollow limbs or small hollow trunks of trees, or the old nesting holes of woodpeckers. If no limbs with suitable cavities are found, they may be made by taking a piece of a limb, about eight inches in diameter and fourteen to sixteen inches long, dividing it in half, with a rip saw, from one end to within three inches of the other, where the cut is met by a right-angle cut from the side.After this an entrance hole of the required size is made through the shorter or front half.
The two halves are hollowed out, as shown in Plate19, so as to form a cylindrical cavity about three and one-half inches in diameter and ten inches deep; then the two halves are placed together and held with screws or bolts. A similar Bird Home is made by boring an auger hole from one end of a piece of limb to within a couple inches of the other, plugging the bored end, and making an entrance hole near the other end. These homes are adapted to woodpeckers, bluebirds, house wrens, chickadees and tree swallows. A little larger home of the same type is required for crested fly catchers and decidedly larger ones for the flicker.
A good sized, deserted flickers’ home or similar cavity provides a nesting place attractive to the screech owl.
A piece of wooden tubing from a chainpump, with the ends plugged, and an entrance made in the side near the upper end, the tube being covered with bark, makes a very good substitute for a hollow limb.
If old and weather stained boards are used in making the box houses, bark covering is not absolutely necessary, but it adds to the attractiveness, from both the birds’ and the human standpoint, and bark affords a good foothold for the birds as they alight at the entrance. Woodpeckers especially should have bark covered exteriors to their homes.
Dried gourds, hollowed out, and with an opening made for an entrance, often attract wrens and bluebirds.
While tin cans may be used, it is not desirable, in the author’s opinion to make use of this medium as tin becomes very hot in the sun. If cans are used, care should be taken to place them in shaded places. Flower pots inverted, as illustrated in Plate19, are suitable for some of the smaller birds.
The old fashioned chimney having been replaced by the modern chimney with small flues, the chimney swifts may be provided with suitable nesting quarters by building on the roofs of barns or sheds, artificial chimneys of wood.
Birds may not always respond promptly to the first attempt at placing a Bird Box, but the would-be landlord must not get discouraged.
Prepare some Bird Homes in as attractive a manner as possible, keep a supply of water for bathing and drinking at hand, and prevent their being disturbed. Then watch for the results that are almost sure to come.
Persistent and intelligent effort will bring ultimate results, which will be sure to reward the attempt. Experience is the best teacher.