Chris Peterson - Build-It-Yourself Birdhouses: 25+ DIY Birdhouses and Bird Feeders

25+ DIY Birdhouses and Bird Feeders

CHRIS PETERSON

INTRODUCTION

Why build a birdhouse?

Its a fair question. You work hard. You get dinner on the table every night. On weekends, you mow your lawn. You tend your garden. You put effort into making the outside of your house look as nice as the inside. Maybe you put in a flagstone patio. Then, you work some more. You shop for groceries. You do your laundry. And when you can, you want to get outside to relaxno work, just pure enjoyment of the great outdoors.

Birdhouses are a small but visually powerful way to decorate your yard. They allow you to add colorful accents and design touches, from the purely whimsical to the elegantly sophisticated. Building a birdhouse is also a way to have some fun in your garage or shop, creating a project that is not so challenging that its frustrating, but is most certainly rewarding.

And lets not forget about the real bonus of a birdhouse: inviting beautiful feathered gems to call your yard home over the breeding season (and perhaps beyond). As lovely as any birdhouse can be, the birds that occupy it are beautiful in their own right. They are hypnotizing to watch as they go about their lives gathering food, bathing, and singing. Especially singing. There is no music quite like birdsong, and every birds song is different. Many species also offer amazing visual displays, splashes of color rarely found in the garden, even among flowers. So, a birdhouse lets you find even more enjoyment in your outdoor spaces.

Of course, yard aesthetics are just the most obvious benefit of building a custom birdhouse. Youll also be helping the environment, by providing a home for birds who have fewer and fewer suitable nesting sites. A German study from 2017 discovered that in the last twenty-five years, the worldwide insect population has diminished by almost 75 percent. Why does that matter? Because the same factors that affect insect lifelarge scale use of highly toxic pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides and the encroachment of urban and suburban sprawlare wiping out bird habitats and putting bird populations at the same risk of decline as the insects many of them eat.

All that said, you can choose to simply put up a birdhouse for the appeal it adds to the garden, with no intention of it ever having occupants. However, if you are hoping to attract feathered visitors to the structure, you should realize that birds have very particular requirements for their homes. Like Goldilocks, they prefer something that is not too large and not too small, but with just the right dimensions and the right size entry hole (youll find all that information, at a glance, in the chart shown ).

Birds also have preferences for their homes surroundings, regardless of where they actually build a nest. Large expanses of well-tended lawns and tidy networks of roadways wont do. A birdhouse can actually be a really important addition to a birds world. It can be the rare place where the lovely feathered traveler feels safe and comfortable. Its a sanctuary where birds can not only lodge but, more importantly, reproduce.

Fortunately, meeting birds needs is not just easy; making a yard or garden bird friendly means making your backyard (or even front yard) more visually interesting, ecologically diverse, and a healthier place for humans, as well.

Invite birds into your yard and youll be importing natural insect control. Most species do more than their fair share of insect hunting, and many go after some of the worst garden pests. Starlings, for example, can decimate a local Japanese beetle population before the beetles decimate your rose garden. Larger species, such as owls or kestrels, may take care of rodents, such as mice or voles. Fruit eaters spread seeds. Helping birds fosters natural balance and can be a wonderful way to teach children about wild creatures and biology in an easy-to-access backyard laboratory.

This black-capped chickadee has found a home in a post-mounted birdhouse with plenty of clear line-of-sight to detect predators. The house is a simple construction but provides everything this bird needs to nurture the next generation.

Of course, just as a homeowners house has locks on the doors and windows, a bird is also looking for security. Where you place a birdhouse, feeder, or birdbath is a matter of finding a location that is safe from the many creatures that prey on birds. As beautiful as they are to homeowners, birds and their eggs are attractive food for predators wild and domestic, from snakes to housecats to raccoons.

All that may seem like a lot to consider, but in practice, it really isnt that difficult or complex. Its just a matter of seeing things from a birds-eye perspective. Establishing a safe and healthy refuge for birds is actually all about common sense and can even be fun.

This book is written specifically to make things as easy as possible. Youll find everything you need to know, from building fun, fanciful, and colorful structures and how best to protect them from the elements and hungry predators that want to make them dinner, to the precise housing size requirements of each speciesand much, much more.

Build-It-Yourself Birdhouses begins with a general overview of key topics, including the plants and landscape features that birds favor, their water needs, and how to keep vulnerable winged creatures safe. Weve included a chapter on construction basics, covering the best tools and the quickest and easiest techniques for creating sturdy birdhouses and feeders that will not only attract your favorite species but will also look good in the yard for many seasons to come. Youll find a special section covering fascinating decorating techniques, such as cutting small wood pieces that add massive amounts of personality to any birdhouse. All of these projects and techniques have been developed for the novice craftsperson and relatively inexperienced woodworker. You should be able to build any birdhouse in this book inside of a weekend, if not over a long afternoon. Just dont be surprised if you catch the DIY birding bug and find yourself crafting additional bird structures for friends and family and customizing backyard structures to capture your own personality and tastes.

BEAUTIFUL BIRDHOUSES FOR BEAUTIFUL BIRDS

IN THIS CHAPTER

A CUSTOM, ONE-OF-A-KIND BIRDHOUSE is a yard decoration that serves up two kinds of beauty. The structure itself is your way to add color and form that reflects your taste and your landscape style. But the actual function of the birdhouse means it will attract lively and often colorful accents in the form of fascinating birds. That part of the equation can translate to hours of enjoyment spent watching small, often colorful, living things go about their lives.