How to Build a Bird House

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If you enjoy watching birds outside of your kitchen window, a bird house will attract a variety of bird species for you to enjoy right from the comfort of your own home. This is an explanation of a simple bird house, but feel free to add your own special touches in order to make it truly your own.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Wood
Drill
Nails
Birdseed

Step1

Collect all of your materials to build your bird house. In order to attract the most birds, you will want to find wood that may still have some of the bark attached to it in order to disguise it a little in your yard. Avoid building the house with any type of metal—this can get too hot for the birds in the summer heat.

Step2

Make the bird house as large as you want, but make sure that the house is at least four by four (inches) in order for birds to fit inside. The most common measurements are a floor that is 5x5, the depth is 8-10 inches, the entrance above the floor will fall 6-8 inches on the front, and the entrance should be at least 1 ½ inches in diameter.

Step3

Make sure that you have built a pitched roof in order to let precipitation roll off of the roof instead of building up inside the house. Also, to get the best runoff you will want to make it go three inches past the front wall. You can hinge the roof in order to open it and put in some bird seed, but this step is optional.

Step4

Before attaching the walls together, drill the door into the front wall of the bird house. This hole will need to be at least 1 ¼ inches for smaller birds, and you can increase the size of the hole depending on the species that you want to attract.

Step5

Find a place to attach your bird house to. It should be at least 6 to 10 feet above the ground. Put it in a place that is away from all natural predators and where the door is facing away from the wind. Situate the bird house in partial sunlight so that the birds will not get too hot during the day.