Going to the Birds… Backyards for Birdwatchers
Backyards going to the birds…that’s a good thing! An increasing movement for homeowners is to design a backyard to sustain wildlife other than plants. Plants are beautiful, and can definitely spruce up your backyard, but they don’t move, birds will energize your backyard and create a sense of activity that pants alone can not.
Bird feeders alone will not achieve a desired bird oasis. There are few simple features the birds need in order for your yard to be treated as a home.
1. Food
There are four basic food groups for birds, Nectar, Seeds, Berries, and Bugs. There are several berry plants that are easy to grow and many native, that both birds and people love. You can find wild blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, and many more that grow in almost many climates around the world. Some other berries that birds love are service berries, hawthorns, mountain ash, crabapple, and dogwoods. You can easily purchase seeds from a sore, but can also be provided to the birds by planting flowering perennials, including your grass. Grass seed is a favorite during the winter months when food is scarce. To attract butterflies and humming birds you will need to plant nectar producing flowers. Nectar rich flowers are easily identified by thier brightly colored flowers with a trumpet shape. A few examples would be honeysuckle, salvia, jasmine, trumpet vine, fuchsia and many more. You should supplement their feed with bird feeders and nectar feeders all year long, but it is very important to keep it filled in the winter months. Bugs are a huge source of food for birds, stop with the pesticides! Birds like Purple Martins, can significantly reduce the number of bugs in a yard. Not only are pesticides potentially harmful to the environment and your family, they take away a good food source for other living things.
2. Water
Don’t forget the water. They use it to drink, bathe and play. In order to have the bird oasis in your backyard you have to have
some source of water, it can be a simple bird bath, a pond, fountain or even a reoccurring puddle. They prefer shallow water so they can stand and splash their wings around to bathe. Not only will they be cleaner happier and enjoy the play, you will enjoy every minute you spend watching them in the water.
3. Safety
Finally birds need a safe place to hang their feathers and raise a family. Many backyards don’t have the specific qualifications to house birds naturally. This is why our once common song birds such as bluebirds’ numbers are diminishing. People don’t realize that their subdivision use to house many birds and now dead trees are removed and landscaping replaced it is not conducive for birds to live. All is not lost though… you can give nature a hand by providing them with a home with birdhouses. There are some great bird house plans, kits and prefabricated birdhouses available to provide shelter.
Add just a few essentials, and you can make your backyard more enchanting for you and the wildlife it attracts. All backyards, small and big have enough room to share with a few birds!
History of Martin Bird Houses
The Native Americans first started colonizing these birds to help protect their crops. They discovered Purple Martins were an excellent pestacide! They use to hang hollowed out gourds in the trees near the crops, and the Purple Martins significantly reduced the amount of insects near the crops. As an added benefit, the mating martins would chase away predators predators such as crows that had a damaging effect on crops as well. Did you know that Martins in the Eastern United States are entirely dependant on man made martin bird houses?
The martin bird house started out as hollowed out gourds and now they come in all shapes and sizes. They live in apartment style houses or closely grouped single family homes. Martin bird houses can be made from a number of different materials, such as gourds, wood, metal, plastic and even Styrofoam. Most commonly in suburbia you will see the apartment style of one martin bird house with lots of holes and separate internal compartments.
Purple Martins can require a lot of work. You will be a pet owner for the months that they are nesting. In order to have a colony successfully nesting you will have to monitor the house, so no predator, such as the European Starling and House Sparrow, nest in the martin bird house before the martins do. Once the colony has moved out it is time to clean house. Clean the nests out and blockade the openings until next season. But they are dependant on you to provide them with housing!
Though a martin bird house can be a lot of work, you will notice that the entertainment you get from these fun creatures well outweigh the maintenance. These amazing wild birds will clean your yards of pests and provide you with a source of entertainment in return for your house cleaning!
Suggested Reading:
- 4 Musts to Consider For Your Purple Martin Bird House – Another consideration of the purple martin bird house you purchase is to make sure that inside the individual unit, there is at least 7 inches of space. Purple Martins can grow relatively large and need this extra space for free …
Building a Bird House!
When you build a bird house there are certain things that will make your bird house plans more successful. Building a bird house can be fun and rewarding, especially when a bird decides to take nest. Improve your success when you use these tips:
Build a bird house with proper ventilation and drainage.
Besides the opening where the birds enter add a few holes on the upper sides of the box. During the warm months birds can literally bake in the box if air does not freely flow through the home. Make sure the holes are not placed where water gets funneled into the living area. Water in the form of condensation will be reduced if there is proper ventilation and drainage holes. Drainage holes should be located directly on the bottom. These holes should be small and not noticeable.
Build a bird house with bird safety in mind.
Location plays a large part in how safe a bird feels. You shouldn’t place your birdhouse near the street or areas with loud noises and a lot of movement for extended periods of time. Birds do not need perches! Perches are only good for domesticated caged birds. In the wild a perch will allow predators, such as snakes, rodents, and birds of prey to enter the home and snatch the eggs and young. Add three or four horizontal shallow notched lines below the opening to give the bird a place to grab on to. A bird house should have only one entrance per living quarters. Any more than that can increase risk a bird feels should a predator or competing bird comes knocking. Bird house placement depends on the species of bird you are trying to attract. A good bird house plan should include the placement preferences of each species that lives in the type of home you are building. Some birds are happy the side of a house or tree, others prefer a pole that is safe from climbing predators.
Build a bird house with style.
There are all sorts of bird house plans available that suit everyones style, but keep your birds health and safety in mind when you build a bird house. Bright colors are undesired for bird houses because they are so desired! Strange I know. Birds are attracted to bright colors because it is usually a source of food. This can create added competition for the house. Birds want a home near food not right next to or on their home. The VOCs (volitile organic copounds) found in paints can be very harmful to birds. There are VOC free paints that do not pose a threat to birds, however if you cannot find these, you can use regular paint, but do not paint the interior of the birdhouse.
A great bird house plan will address all of these issues and more! You can build a bird house with your style in mind while keeping the bird safe and coming back year after year!
Great Bird House Plans for Beginners and Experts!
* Step-by-step color photos and captions
* Designs that are guaranteed to attract specific bird types
* Styles for every taste and nearly every region, including Australia, Europe and the United States
Theres no reason to buy a ready-made birdhouse when it only takes a few short hours to build an even better version. This 128-page book is jam-packed with more than 50 projects that make it easy to attract birds to any backyard.