Yesterday I was given a handcrafted Bluebird house from one of our loyal readers! It mounted nicely on a pole that I already had in my backyard and can be seen from my kitchen window where Dennis and I enjoy our inside bird watching.
I am an amateur “Birdie” and I don’t always know the proper procedures for hanging birdhouses. There are the questions that we must ask in order to determine the proper height, tree or not tree, distance from other trees or buildings, etc… There is also the very important question of what type of bird will live in the house that you have been given or have purchased.
You can hang a birdhouse, but it doesn’t guarantee that a bird will come to live there. You can do everything right by the rules and still have no lodgers! This can become frustrating when you see it empty season after season. But, your chances are better of getting guests come if you follow certain rules given by the professionals.
When I received the birdhouse yesterday I had been trying to figure out where I could put a birdhouse. If you put too many posts in your yard it soon becomes difficult to mow, so I was happy to hear from my gift giver that I could put the Bluebird house on the same post that we have another house, but lower down on the post. Since we lost our precious Bluebird family during the snowstorm in February we haven’t had any new Bluebirds move in.
Bluebirds are territorial, so we may not have birds move into both houses, but I decided that having an additional house may increase my odds of getting a new family try us out. Sometimes I think that it is good to try new things because you never know just what might work with birds. In fact I have several bird houses that have hung in my trees for a couple of years and never had a resident, so I intend to take them all down and move them around in my yard. I don’t know if it is because they are too low or too high or not hidden by branches enough, but I intend to find out by experimenting a little bit.
Dennis and I had hung our martin gourds high up in a mimosa tree, but I am going to have to buy a Martin bird post with arms at the top to hold the gourds. Martins like to be up high, but out in the open, not in or near trees.
Don’t put Bluebirds houses on trees or buildings because it is too easy for predators to raid their nests. The rules say mount them 100 to 300 feet away from trees or buildings and hang 6 feet from the ground. There are exceptions to these rules I have found. A friend of mine has a Bluebird house that has had birds every summer since she put it out and it is about 3 feet off the ground. Our Bluebird Hotel is about 12 feet off the ground and we had beautiful Bluebirds live there until we lost them to the storm.
Many birds don’t even live in houses. They build their nests snugly in shrubs and in trees or even inside trees. Some are high and some are low. So, I think that like people everything is about location and how safe they feel where they build their nest. They also want to have a good source of food and fresh water.
I’m excited about my new birdhouse and I surely appreciate the person who built it and gave it to me. I look forward to sharing a successful story and photographs of new Bluebirds coming to live in it! I’m thankful that others believe what Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” as we continue to “Look at the Birds of the air…” Matthew 8:28
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