Birds That Use Nest Boxes and Nesting Platforms
This may seem obvious but many of the birds that you see visiting your feeders and bird baths could stay and nest in the nearby bushes and trees in your back yard.
Most of these birds however, including the cardinals, all doves and the orioles, will not nest in boxes or bird houses.
Fortunately you are still in a position to help them if you consider their different requirements for food and shelter when you are planning the landscaping of your yard.
Another way to help them is to hang out a small wire cage full of useful nesting materials, like fiber scraps, small twigs, bits of wool and even small fluffy feathers, in the spring time when they start building their nests.
The birds that you will be able to attract to nest in your bird house or nest box are as follows:
Birds that use Nest Boxes
Chickadees, Titmice and the Nuthatches
All these tree species of bird share the same sort of food and therefore feeders and also live in very similar habitats. If you put out a correctly designed nesting box in any wooded back yard at least one pair of titmice, chickadees or nuthatches will probably check it out sooner or later.
Chickadee bird houses should be sited at eye level. Just hang them securely from tree limbs or nail them carefully to tree trunks. An entrance hole of exactly 1 and 1/8 th inches should be used to make sure that house sparrows can not get in.
Nuthatches prefer a nest box house on a tree trunk between five and six feet above ground level, but make sure you attach the bird house very securely.
All three of these small bird species can be encouraged to stay in your yard by continuing feeding with your suet and peanut feeders right through the summer months.
Wrens
Wrens seem to be the least picky of the cavity nesting birds when they come to choosing a nesting site. Instead of using a circular nest hole they prefer to use nest boxes with a 1 by 2 inch horizontal slot, but increase this size to a 1.5 x 2.5 inch slot if you are trying to attract the larger
Wrens have a notorious reputation for always filling up all possible nest cavity sites with twigs even if they never use the nest. This is because most male wrens will build several nests for the female to make her choice from. Therefore you will have to hang several nest boxes all at about eye level on the limbs of some part shaded tree limbs. Because wrens are very sociable they will often use nest boxes which are quite close to your home.
Brown Creepers and Prothonotary Warblers
The little brown creepers will nest right behind the curved bark on tree trunks. If you are in a heavily wooded yard then you could use a slab bark bird house which will appeal to these creepers.
You will find that prothonotary warblers also prefer slab bark nest boxes, but the bird houses for these warblers must be placed over water to be successful.
Bluebirds
If you want to attract Bluebirds then if you live near an old field, an orchard, a park or cemetery, or even a golf course, you will stand a very good chance of attracting a pair of bluebirds to your yard.
Just set up a purpose-built bluebird nest box preferably on top of a tree stump or wooden fence post that is between about three and five feet tall.
Sometimes blue birds will nest in old abandoned woodpecker nest holes.
The most crucial item for a blue birds is the size of the entrance hole diameter. A diameter of 1.5 inches is good as it is small enough to deter starlings.
Unfortunately starlings and house sparrows have been known to sometimes kill baby bluebirds and even adult bluebirds sitting on a nest.
You need to be aware that bluebirds can have problems with other animals as well. The best way to try and stop predatory cats, chipmunks, snakes and raccoons is to place the bluebird house on a metal pole or if you have to put it on a wooden post then also use a metal predator guard to deter these animals.
Violet Green Swallows and Tree Swallows
Violet Green swallows mainly nest in the forested mountains of the west and they will use nest boxes placed on quite large trees located in a half open woodland area.
Tree swallows however have a preference for nest boxes attached to dead trees. You should keep the tree swallow bird houses about seven feet apart from each other.
Your ideal setting for nest boxes for these spectacular insect eaters is on the edge of a field near water such as a river, lake or a pond. Tree swallows are very pretty and have white bellies with iridescent blue green backs and wings.
The Flycatchers
Both the Great Crested flycatcher and its close western cousin the Ash Throated flycatcher are quite common in wooded suburbs of towns.
Although their regular natural nesting sites are usually in abandoned woodpecker holes, these flycatchers might nest in a properly sited bird house if you place it about ten feet up in a tree that is situated in an orchard or located at the edge of a field or a stream.
Purple Martins
It is said that Purple Martins can eat over 2000 mosquitoes a day and because of this many people want to attract these birds to their yard.
Of course they do eat insects, in fact that is all they eat, but they prefer dragonflies which actually prey do on mosquitoes, so don’t expect the martins to do this job for you.
Bats which fly at night, when most mosquitoes are active, do eat a lot of mosquitoes and are a better bet as hey will eat 1000 mosquitoes each night. Put up a bat roosting box to attract them to your yard.
However purple martins are still entertaining to watch and you can put up a purple martin bird house to attract them. Site their martin house in a field or lawn located on the edge of a pond or river. The purple martins need an unobstructed flying area of about 40 feet all around their house.
These birds are very sociable and like to perch together in groups on a wire near their house so provide one if you can.
Martins also nest in groups so provide a martin bird house with a minimum of four rooms, which must have a minimum size of 6 inches or more on all sides. Each room must have an entrance hole with a 2.5 inch diameter which needs to b e situated about 1.5 inches above the floor of the room.
Ventilation requirements and adequate drainage are critical in the design of any martin house. Extras such as porches with porch dividers, railings and additional roof perches, such as a TV aerial will make the bird house more appealing to purple martins.
Strangely Gourds hung on a wire can also be attractive to purple martins, but to make them into suitable martin houses you must provide the entrance hole and proper drainage. If you do use gourds you will not need to add any of the extras such as railings and other perches as the adult martins will simply perch on the wire used to hang the gourd houses.
Gourd houses are obviously the easiest to set up because you can easily hang them from a wire between two poles or tall posts or from a sectional aluminum pole or on pulleys mounted to high cross bar up on a tall pole.
It is essential that before you decide on the right house for you purple martins you need to think about what kind of pole you are will be putting it on. Purple Martins will occupy a bird house that is between 10 to 20 feet above ground level.
If required a light weight aluminum martin bird house can be mounted at the top of telescoping poles which means that they are easy to access for maintenance, inspection and cleaning.
Wood houses are much heavier at about 30 pounds and therefore cannot be mounted on the easy access telescoping poles. For a wooden martin house you will need to use a sturdy metal or wood pole attached to a pivot post. There is a major problem with this lowering technique in that you can not tilt the bird house without damaging the nests inside. So if you put your house on a shorter fixed pole instead, say about 10 to 12 feet high, then you can easily use a ladder to inspect and maintain it.
It is really easy to attract all the woodpeckers to your yard with a suet feeder, but it is only the Flicker and the Red Bellied woodpecker that are likely to use a man-made bird house.
They both prefer to nest in a nesting box that has a roughened interior with a floor covered in a 2 inch layer of wood chips or very coarse sawdust.
The Flickers really like a nest box filled with sawdust because they can excavate the inside to suit what they like. To get the very best results you should place a woodpecker nest box for these two birds high up on a tree trunk which is exposed to direct sunlight.
Owls
It has been proved that most owls do not usually build their own nests.
Both the Great Horned and Long Eared owls prefer to use old abandoned Crow and Hawk nests. Other owls such as the Barred Owl, Barn Owl, Saw Whet Owl, the Boreal Owl and Screech Owls will nest in tree cavities and also in purpose designed bird houses.
Barn owls are really well known for selecting a nest site near in or around farms. If trees are sparse then barn owls will nest in farm buildings, barns, silos and even church steeples. If you are fortunate enough to live near a farm or a golf course then if you try to fasten a barn owl nest box securely about 15 feet up on a tree trunk then you could be sucessful.
Screech owls are different in that they prefer abandoned woodpecker holes, which need to be located at the edge of a field or an old neglected orchard. Screech owls will readily take to nest boxes if they are lined with 1 or 2 inches of wood shavings.
If you clean the box out some time in late spring after the young owls have fledged and gone then you might be able a kestrel to the box.
When deciding on the location of the nest box remember that trees isolated from larger tracts of woods have less chance of squirrels moving in and taking over.
Birds which use Nesting Platforms
Barn Swallows and Phoebes
You need the right habitat to attract these birds, but if you do have that habitat it is easy to get phoebes and barn swallows to use a nest box.
Both these birds have a tendency to nest in all the places that you wish they would not.
A typical location that they might adopt but where you would not want them is on a ledge right over your front door. In this situation and to try and avoid a mess by your front door you can try to offer these birds a nesting shelf nearby but in a place where you would prefer them to nest.
Robins
Robins are the largest thrushes and they prefer to build a nest in a crotch in a tree or very large bush. If there is no appropriate tree in your yard then you can help them by setting up a nesting platform.
Find a suitable position at least six feet above the ground or higher on a shady tree trunk or even under the shaded overhang of a porch or shed.
If you set up a man-made mud puddle close to the nesting area to will enjoy watching the robins gather the mud to line their nests.
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