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Nestboxes (Decorative)In addition to Messages that have appeared in the Bluebird Mailing Lists on this topic, the following are on the Audubon Society of Omaha website: Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 14:52:58 -0500 I am working for an architectural firm in Boston MA called Perry Dean Rogers & Partners. We are building a birdhouse for a charitable organization to be auctioned off to raise funds. Our design is based on the post office in Boston and includes an unorthodox entryway. We're not sure if the birds will be able to navigate it and would appreciate any ideas, comments, or information. The nesting box is intended to attract Eastern Bluebirds. The entry is to be made out of a stainless steel tube 1-1/2" inside diameter. It will be 3-1/8" at its longest and will have a 45 degree slash cut on the outside with the long side facing the sky. We can install something like sandpaper on the floor of the inside of the tube for traction. Will the birds be able to access this entry? How do bluebirds enter conventional entryways? Would a modification to the outer end be necessary? This project is intended to appeal to humans as well as birds, hence our unorthodox entry. Please help, it's for a good cause! Thanks, Mark G. Taber Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2000 19:01:12 -0800 ... Mark...Sounds very interesting. I had the same problem when I designed an outhouse down in Kentucky. I had house sparrows only to enter. So I finally closed for that season. But, as you perhaps know Birds do not have a good sense of smell, so the type of structure had nothing to do with its failure. May I ask a serious question about your letter? What is the cause for which you are raising funds by selling a bluebird box designed after a postoffice? Is it the US Postal Service or perhaps some other local organization. Just curious, that's all. Anyway, my suggestion for what it is worth would be to shorten the hole to between 1 and 2 inches--I know this is debatable among our group of experts(a group that does not include this writer). I fall somewhere between a simple person and an average birder. But I react negatively to a steel entrance with sandpaper flooring. Reminds me of the entrance to my old college administration building. I know you are designing for both birds and people, and must allow for compromise for each. My reaction is to compromise Bostonians not Bluebirds. Therfore, may I suggest you redesign the entrance hole and in addition to shortning it, that you use wood(eg: an old used wooden Vern Q Powell flute with B foot joint or clarinet from the Boston Symphony) and no sandpaper and increase the ID to 1 and 9/16 inches--the size of the great Gilbertson Box. In place of the 45 degree slant--use a traditional 5 degree with long side facing the ground and tilted slightly away from the sky--let's say about 7.25 degrees. I do believe that you will find you need a small bluebird stepladder design on the outside and also the inside for the outside bird to stand and feed and the inside babies to hold on while they dine and when they fledge. This is only opinion-for I have never researched such a design-so am just expressing my kneejerk reaction to your hole concept. When I lived in the city, I had a house designed after my own dwelling made from stucco. It was not a success either. To address your specific question "How do bluebirds enter conventional entryways?" Head First. They stick their head in three times then on forth time they go all the way in. A few will shorten the process and may even enter the first time. But most check to see how everything is at home--much as I do when I get home and throw my hat into the entryway before setting foot inside. Bluebirds are so like people. If I could help you and save you lots of time and trouble I would. And here is what I would do. I would have you call Mr Gilbertson and order one of his boxes for around $8.00 auction it off and redesign the local post office to accomodate the local charity. But since I don't know all the facts, I hesitate to make a strong recommendation and will vote for your sticking with a traditional entry to show that your firm is considered wildlife friendly. I am convinced you will get some real and good ideas from this crowd of cavity nesters. We have members who have written books, build and sell birdhouses, maintain great bluebird trails for years, teach at leading universities, biologist, carpenters etc. But most of all they really do care. So you have come to the right place and must be congratulated for knowing who to ask such a question. If you have a little jpeg snapshot of your design, I for one would be interested in seeing it if you are willing to forward to my personal email. Thank you for writing an interesting letter. Wendell Long, Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 16:50:51 -0600 Bill Darnell I just saw a sickening sight. I was leaving a Local Wal-Mart and there sat a pickup with the bed loaded down with the little "cutsie birdboxes." He had everything from little boxes with holes barely big enough for wrens, to martin type houses. All painted "real purty." What made me sick is I had a flashback to seeing these things stuck up on posts and porches with handfuls of trash stringing out of them and the common feathered rat, the HOSP, fluttering around. Is there any way to educate people about these boxes? Would most even care? Somehow, folks will have to understand you can't just stick a box of any kind up and expect the vermin not to move in. I don't think most people know the difference. Another case, a martin landlord a few miles from here died. I drove by his place yesterday, and the people who live there had let the starlings and sparrows take over. Trash hanging out of every gourd, and hunch-back starlings sitting on the lines. And that makes me sad. Off my stump for now. Bill Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 18:04:26 EST Well, I know this is a Bluebird site, but I cannot find wrong with letting the "ugly" or hunchback starlings take over where neglect has run out the martins. I don't have a problem with the cutsey houses being used "incorrectly." This is not my cup of tea, and I would not want the garbage, etc. We would all prefer beautiful, colorful, chirping birds to choose our offerings, but the truth is the world (of birds and people) are made up mostly of sparrows... average, bland, beings of various shades of boring. While it would be better to tend the houses meant for the martins and would be better to teach folks what could come of a well maintained housing "project", the truth is people will be people and birds will be birds. To love the Bluebird to the exception of the sparrows and starlings is not recognizing the value of hte natural occurrence of the birds. Offering housing and trying to keep them exclusively for those we wish to have entertain us is okay, but to loathe another species or to feel that education is needed to keep others from appreciating that which we do not love, is a little bit less than loving nature. I happen to love the starlings coloring -- i find it interesting. I do not like the way they eat all my bird food, mess my yard and lurk in the trees waiting for more. But I love the flurry of activity, the fact that almost any bird will sit down at the table with each other or fight others away. See the birds' society as perhaps a microcosm of ours... give and take ... I don't wish to 'redline' my real estate so that only the best, prettiest, most talented, most colorful or most trendy tenants are welcome.,,, Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 18:09:14 EST Hi All I have a saying and that is "YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO SAY NO FOR ANYONE. What if you had ask the man if he would like some help with the designs for his boxes? He might of said Hell No I know how to build them. Or then again he might has been very interested in learning. I think that I even got the owner of a bird store to stop feed sparrow food just by asking. He no longer sells cutsie so called bluebird houses only NABS approved ones. I also feel that our primary goal of providing cavities for birds that use them but how successful will they be unless we educate the surrounding population of people. Bob Wilson Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 19:06:40 EST I am not sure I agree with you if these non-native birds had natural enemies they would be under natures law. You pull weed out of your garden don't you. If you have the stomach for a photo of what a HOSP did to a Mom WEBL laying eggs I will send you one. If they had eaten the Mom that would not bothered me but to just to kill because for no reason then that sound too much like murder. Bob Wilson Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 19:07:10 EST Jerry Houser Bill Don't give up. The answer IS education. And it does work. Example- last year at our community gardens I explained to several gardeners (we have BB houses at the gardens too) the situation with the HOSP and how important it was to control that species. They had no idea that there was a problem at all thinking a bird is a bird- all of equal value and the desire to "make nice", so to speak. Well, just last night I was speaking with one of the gardeners telling her that I was going to reconfigure the BB houses. She said to me: "You know, Jerry, there is some species that kills off and chases the beautiful bluebird" (not remembering that it was I who had given her that information last year.) I reminder her that it was the HOSP. This to me is a wonderful example that all of us doing our bit, gently, can make a difference. It's always good to have an informational sheet which can be given to people like you describe. Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 21:41:33 -0800 Kevin Putman, Yuba City, CA20 Remember, there's nothing wrong with those cutsie bird houses as long as the entrance hole is too small for house sparrows! For people who intend to monitor, a NABS approved house is a good thing; for people who don't care about details--native vs exotic birds--let them buy cutsie houses with 1/2" entrance holes. KP Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 16:59:48 -0600 Is the one inch hole the right size for wrens? Merlin Wright at Brownville Nebraska Bill Darnell Very good. Also, as a crafts item, they are pretty popular as an inside decoration. If everyone who builds them would just put a 1 inch or less hole in them! Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 18:48:38 -0500 When we built wren house in school, they always taught us to use a quarter (25 cent piece) to get the size of the hole. This is slightly less than 1 inch After being absent for a few days, my bluebirds were back and checking out the houses today. It was 58 degrees this afternoon and snow is rapidly melting. Lynn near Reading Pa "Wright, Merlin C." wrote: Is the one inch hole the right size for wrens?
From: Phil Berry [mailto:mrtony8"at"mchsi.com] I got a call yesterday to come to the aid of a neighbor who thought her bluebirds were dead in a box. This is what I found, but it had 5 babies in it then. This is an ornamental bird house, mistaken for a nestbox for bluebirds. Mom then built the nest so high in order to get clearance on the floor. They stayed in here for 20 days. I don't know if thy could not get out or what, but I took them out of the nest and Mom jumped for joy. Went back thgis morning and all are happy and doing well. The trees are full of bb noises. the bottom of this box measures about 2 1/2 inches. Talk about a box full of birds. We have pictorial documentation of the 20 days. "Well, they told us it was for bluebirds. Phil Berry, Gulf Breeze, Florida From: Bob in TN Hi All, I put up a decrative ceramic nest box on the corner of my deck last year. After a lost battle to a pair of Tree Swallows and near death experience with a coon and four dead babies due to a male House Sparrow, My pair of BB's used the decrative box with wonderful success. I got 4 beautuful fledglings from it. When it came to cleaning it out after they were gone, I simply sprayed the nest with lighter fluid and lit a match....After all the nest matl. burned up, I just stuck my water hose in it and flushed it all away. very simple... Bob in Tn... From: "Kenny Kleinpeter" Let me guess, you did this outdoors? :-) At any rate, an accessible nestbox would make sparrow elimination via trapping simple and probably would have saved your four little bluebirds from a horrific death. How did you remove your dead babies - no, better yet, don't tell us. :-) Kenny Kleinpeter Baton Rouge From: "Dottie Roseboom" Hi Bob, Glad that the ceramic worked for you - the ones that were given to me had such thin walls, that I wouldn't allow anything but HOSP to nest in them :-) Their thin walls would have little insulation value in our cold Aprils or hot Julys. Also there wasn't a good way to trap HOSP. And they don't look so "decorative" with a baffle beneath them. Since there seem to be enough "natural" perils for cavity nesters, I try not to add additional ones by using poorly-constructed nestboxes. Therefore, I have the ceramic boxes outside only during non-nesting seasons. Plugging the entrance holes to prevent nesting would be another option. If anyone tries the bonfire approach to getting rid of the nest, make sure that there isn't some decorative plastic or yarn around the box. Dottie Roseboom Peoria IL (central - zone 5) From: connie masters [mailto:cmast51"at"yahoo.com] From: Bruce Burdett [mailto:blueburd"at"tds.net] If it were mine, I'd just let the birds run things, and then, if the young birds fledge successfully, take the box down, clean out the old nest, and either retool it so that it opens properly for monitoring, or discard it. I don't think I'd want an un-openable box in my spread. At this stage, there's not much you CAN do, really. Bruce Burdett, SW NH P.S. I hope anyone who disagrees will tell Connie. From: Anne Jones [mailto:ac.jones"at"comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:14 PM Subject: Re: Bluebirds I've used a dental mirror to get a peek at the eggs and to at least monitor when they hatch......I agree with Bruce...re-tool the box once this group of babies is out...its pretty easy to make a hinged/latch from the side ... Also...I found my pair came right back after re-tooling and we had two more clutches that same summer !! A Jones- Flower mound TX From: KCBSP"at"aol.com [mailto:KCBSP"at"aol.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 10:29 PM Subject: Re: Bluebirds Hiya Connie, Try to remember when she laid the last egg cause it's 2 weeks until they hatch after the last one is laid. You will see the parents bringing food to the box if you dont know so that will be a good clue the babies have hatched out. After that it's about 18 to 21 days give or take till the young leave the nest. If it's longer then write us again. Phil who is on our list had somebody call him that had a decorative box. It was very long and skinny. The babies were in there and it seemed they couldn't get out on their own very easily. It was a long way up from the pictures he sent. If you would like to chat more just write anytime. Hope this helps. Kathy Clark, New Cumberland, PA From: Dottie Roseboom [mailto:rosedot"at"mtco.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 10:55 PM Subject: Re: Bluebirds Connie, Just another thought about retooling the current nestbox - if it's made out of ceramic (I've received several from friends), they are almost impossible to modify without breaking them. After the babies fledge, clean out the nest with some forceps. A rubber stopper (hardware store) in the entrance hole will prevent future birds from utilizing this decorative nestbox. Dottie Roseboom Peoria IL (central - zone 5) Date:
Wed, 26 May 2004 09:24:34 -0500 Even if you can't open the nestbox, you can peek in with a flashlight. I was forced to do that once when a purchased nestbox was hinged too low, and opening it nearly smacked the babies on the head! I peeked in and was still able to count eggs, note that they had hatched, count little beaks and see how the babies grew. You will still be able to observe the parents, especially once the eggs have hatched, their behavior is also a clue as to whether everything is proceeding smoothly, or there is something wrong. Once the babies have fledged, stop up the hole on this nestbox to prevent future nestings and make it truly "decorative" only. Since the bluebirds liked the location, you might put up a well-constructed nestbox in this location and put the decorative one somewhere else. For more information, check you local library for bluebird books, or consider purchasing one. An excellent one is "The Bluebird Monitor's Guide". Kate Arnold Paris, TX From: John Schuster [mailto:wildwingco"at"earthlink.net] Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 10:24 AM Subject: Wanted: Large Castle Birdhouse Builder Dear Friends, I'm trying to find someone that either builds or knows of someone that builds castle type birdhouse that I can refer to a lady that called me who desires such a bird house. From what I gather she wants a big castle type birdhouse. I tried to persuade the lady that called me not to use them, but she is looking for a friend and her friend is the one that is being insistent. I could build one, but I just do not have the time, and frankly I do not like castle type birdhouses because of HOSP and EUST challenges that take place in them (a good way to eliminate exotic challenges on the above birdhouse, would be to make the holes in the castle smaller than 1 3/8”, or the holes could be counter sunk and painted to look like holes to make it impossible for the above exotic to get into the castle.) Anyway, just send me your best referrals and I will forward the referrals to the lady that called, then she can contact the builder directly. ... John Schuster From: DottyRogers"at"netscape.net [mailto:DottyRogers"at"netscape.net] ... on the far larger issue of the magazine's chronic promotion of cutesie-pooh, nifty-gifty decorative nestboxes. Been picturing a gentle, tactful attempt to educate the editorial staff on native fledglings trapped/dying in these nightmares -- or clouds of HOSPs pouring out of them. Could they recommend painting on a fake entry-hole rather than drilling the real McKoy? --If they received enough encouraging e-mail/letters on the topic; might get them to modify their approach? --I mean, none of their readers actually want to harm bluebirds, tree swallows or chickadees? It'd have to really nice & well-mannered though; not get them on the defensive. (That goes backwards.) And Tina & staff, if this is completely inappropriate, I understand. Dot From: Schneid, Kurt J LRB [mailto:KURT.J.SCHNEID"at"lrb01.usace.army.mil] Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 6:35 AM Subject: ornamental house My neighbor called yesterday to tell me she had birds living in a “ornamental” house. She happens to have 7 or 8 houses that are meant purely as decoration in her side garden, sizes range from just a hole drilled into some wood to a full “log cabin” looking home twice the size of your normal EABL house. A chickadee has decided that one of these homes, approximately 2.5 inches deep and 4 or 5 inches wide with about a 1.25- 1.5 inch hole was suitable enough to make their home. I could see 4 eggs in the nest after the mother left, will have to use a flashlight to see if there are more. I thought is was very cute. These neighbors have one of the EABL nest boxes in their front yard I had built some years back, supposedly there were EABL using it last year however I noticed a sparrow using it last night. From: Fred Benson Keith, There are two notable nestbox competitions in this area. One in Raleigh, NC Details of all three are shown below. A PDF copy of the entrance form for Here a few of my thoughts on the subject of bird house contests based on my 1. Aesthetics win over functionality every time. A number of artists enter 2. Separation of submission categories (professional, serious, hobby, etc.) 3. Entry submission guidelines and rules for judging entries are often ... From: Sheila Rogers [mailto:sheilarogers"at"charter.net] Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 12:12 AM Subject: Blue Bird house Is this house a legal house for BB's? My DH would like to make one:) Sheila http://www.meiselwoodhobby.com/cgi-bin/webplus.exe?script=/shop/item.wml&groupid=
Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Make sure the entrance slot is 1&3/16" tall. I would make sure there are drainage holes in the bottom. A dark blue box would need to be mounted where it is shaded in the afternoon if you are in a location that would be hitting in the 90*F temperature range when birds would be using the nestbox. You might even want to use "shiny" fake bird eyes to see if this giant bluebird would scare away House Sparrows:-)) You might use silver thumb tacks to make it look like the bluebird had silver belly buttons holding on his coat of blue! KK |
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