With Christmas just around the corner I'd like to make each family a bird house. Cardinal houses are pretty easy, but I'm also looking at making some Martin houses. Any good designs or gotchas? I'll be using wood
Cardinals don't use housesPurple martins do but they are not easy to make because they mount up like 15ft high and use special lifts to raise and lower the houses for cleaning. If you're not in an area near where martins currently nest I wouldn't bother, it's a huge investment. How about a simple bluebird house? Those are easy to set up and if you don't get bluebirds you might get house wrens which some people like. I find their incessant singing gets irritating.
>>2828408I live in an area that gets purple martins but really I'm open to anything. Couldn't I just sink a fence post in the ground, mount the box on a pipe that goes around the post and add some set screws to prevent swaying?I don't mind house wrens I find their singing peaceful. I like Cardinals and they are our state bird. Their houses aren't very elaborate to decorate though (picrel).As far as material goes is white pine ok or should I try and get cedar? Also is it worth finishing with something like tung oil and spraying with biocide or is that going to affect the birds?
>>2828456Those open nest box for cardinals, I've never seen them use one but robins or doves might too.> I live in an area that gets purple martins but really I'm open to anything. Couldn't I just sink a fence post in the ground, mount the box on a pipe that goes around the post and add some set screws to prevent swaying?If you look up Martin houses, they're very specific... very high up and they design the holes in certain ways to deter house sparrows and starlings. Martin landlords are hardcore and will kill sparrows or starlings that get in. Bluebird houses are probably the easiest, look up the conduit rebar mounting system it's very simple and cheap to get parts for. https://bbne.org/ has lots of info.> As far as material goes is white pine ok or should I try and get cedar? Also is it worth finishing with something like tung oil and spraying with biocide or is that going to affect the birds?Pine is fine, cedar is preferred because of rot resistance but I can't find cedar locally so I don't bother and just use untreated lumber. You should specifically not sand or coat inside bird houses. If you must paint for decoration, only paint the outside. They need a rough surface inside to climb on. After each nest you can clean it out, I just scrape with a hard bristle brush and then hose it out and let it dry in the sun.
If you want Martin housing I think Erva makes some good stuff for that https://naturehouseinc.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=235_88
>>2828507>>2828508Nice, I can take some inspiration from these. It seems overall the things to take into account are water shedding/drainage, cleaning, and ease of use (e.g. places for birds to grip). Anything I'm missing?
>>2828549Protection from predators as well. snakes, raccoons, etc.
