Birdhouse Tree photo by Larry Jordan
I wanted to share this interesting grouping of birdhouses I saw in a quiet neighborhood in northern California. This person has quite a collection! If you like to collect birdhouses for fun and conversation, this can be a cool hobby I suppose but it would be for your enjoyment and not for the birds. There must be at least fifty birdhouses in this yard but no birds did I see. Well, I saw one house sparrow.
Most of these birdhouses were strictly for decoration but would not be suitable for birds to breed in. Some had perches (a feature that only aids predators), some were made of metal (good if you want to cook your birds) and I didn’t see even one of these birdhouses that opened so it could be cleaned and monitored. There were many with two holes, one above the other, but no floor to separate the two.
The other important thing to note here is that these birdhouses are all way to close to one another for any cavity nesting species to use. There are only two species of cavity nesters that I know of that will live in a communal setting. Those are the Purple Martins and the Tree Swallows.
Purple Martin House
It is also very important to have the proper cavity size and the proper entrance hole size for the species of bird you are trying to attract. For more information on building birdhouses, read my article here:
http://buildyourownbirdhouseplans.com/buildingbirdhouses.html
Happy Birding!
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I didn’t know that the entrance hole size of a birdhouse was so important. I’ve decided that I want to get a birdhouse, and I think it would be fun to make sure it’s suitable for a bird to actually nest in. I’ll definitely look for one that has the proper entrance size so I can attract a bird to my yard.