How to Build a Birdhouse

Birdhouses provide needed shelter for birds and are fun and educational building projects for parents and their children. Many birds prefer a unique nesting home suited for their special needs such as bluebirds and purple martins. Here's how to decide what type of birdhouse is right for your yard.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Choose a wren bird house for any location. Wrens are tiny birds that live comfortably in the city or country. Wren houses can be hung or attached to a tree or wall. Their openings are only 1 inch in diameter which permits only a tiny wren to enter while deterring sparrows.

2. Select a bluebird house if you live in the suburbs or out in the country. Bluebirds are territorial and very particular when it comes to their nesting requirements. The opening should be 1 1/2 inches wide and placed towards the top of the house. You can find detailed building plans on bird lovers' websites.

3. Attract hairy or downy woodpeckers to your suburban or country yard with a house placed on a pole or tree trunk 10 to 20 feet from the ground. Make the hole 2 inches in diameter and place it towards the top of the house.

4. Fill the woodpecker home with wood shredding to simulate the inside of a dead tree and place a slate predator guard around the opening. Some woodpeckers like to live in the house during the winter, so be sure to have it up year-round.

5. Place a open nesting box or shelf on a tree or window ledge for robins, catbirds, swallows and other birds that prefer an open house. Be sure to build one with a roof so the birds can keep dry. This is a good birdhouse choice for inner-city living.

6. Build a purple martin house if you live near large open spaces preferably near water. Martins love community living and need a large house with many rooms for friends to nest. You also can make martin houses out of dried gourds hung in groupings.

7. Construct a screech owl or kestrel birdhouse if you live near some woods. These houses have a 3 inch opening high on the front and can be mounted on a tree 8 to 20 feet from the ground. Provide wood shavings inside for nesting material and an inside ladder or grips for the little ones to climb out. Place it on a tree at the edge of a wooded area.

Resources

• Lowe's has building plans for birdhouses on their website.
• Easily build the Stokes' basic birdhouse and customize it for a specific bird species.
• Wild Birds Unlimited will tell you everything you wanted to know about birds in your yard.

[mooster]

on 2/7/2008 This is great for what kind of birds and where to put the houses, but I want to know how to BUILD one.

[MelindaMWinn]

on 10/7/2007 I am a avid bord watcher from my front room window,i live in the city but it is in the off skerts of town and I have wood peckers,humming birds,as well asblue jays all around my yard,can you tell me what kind of bird houses to build for these birds,and what i will need to make them as well,
thanks MelindaMWinn