bird houses

[fishlkmich]

If you live in a city and don’t have house sparrows by the ton, I’d like to know why! Please see this link that discusses the problems with house sparrows and native birds:
http://www.sialis.org/hosp.htm

Even though you live in a city, you could possibly host screech owls. They are a small owl and are known to hunt insects under street lights. A wood duck house, mounted on a tree or pole, about 12’ up is what I’ve used and I have screech owls use them for roosting all winter, until the wood ducks and mergansers show up.

Because you are in a city, I believe that you will find that you have an abundance of house sparrows and these will be your biggest problem if you put up bluebird houses. Please don’t give house sparrows a place to reproduce. We have too many already! You could still allow house wrens or chickadees to nest and exclude house sparrows by using a 1 1/8” hole.

There are a number of birds that you could try to provide housing for if you see them in the area. This is a great link to building your own bird houses:
http://www.50birds.com/Default.htm

[Greylock]

Holy moly on the webpage you provided, fishlkmich! How devastating! I believe , like you say, the best option is to provide nest boxes with only 1 1/8 holes.

Though, I am curious, It seems like the house sparrows prefer boxes with 1.5in holes. Just because they seem so adaptable, will they use larger houses/holes (like the wood duck house, for example?)

Thanks again

[fishlkmich]

Thank you for taking the time to read and understand the material provided by Sialis. This is the time to learn about your new, potential hobby. I had to learn the hard way. When you see what house sparrows do, it has much more impact than seeing it on the Internet. Knowing what you know now should prevent you from having to experience it. The smaller birds will still provide you with the enjoyment of providing housing for native cavity nesting birds.

House sparrows will NOT use a box as large as a wood duck house. So, you could try putting one of those up for owls, or whatever moves in.

If you decide at some point to do battle with house sparrows, just ask. I am familiar with some of the Canadian laws that could have an impact on how you approach the situation.

Good luck!

[Greylock]

this is Greylock again , as my wife stated she was keeping me up to date on this thread wile i was away working. Lately i have been 2 and a half hours form home form Monday to thursday.

Doing a google search for house sparrows and looking at the wikipedia entry for them to get the actually dimensions of the bird , i can say i have not seen allot of them in the area, Although i honestly haven't been looking for them. I have noticed as i have been learning about wildlife and wild plants i have been noticing them everywhere and have been able to identify plants as i drive, but they were just scenery to me before .

I am hopeing as we learn through both experience , reading and the shared knowledge of others nature will become less white noise to us , and more something we can notice and enjoy all the details with.

The Birds i actively have seen in my area are
- Robins (a poor mother robin lost her chick in wind storm last year in the side of our yard, very sad after watching her and her chick form one of our windows for quite some time)

- Bluebirds (they swoop down often to eat the peanuts we toss on our lawn to feed squirrels)

- Cardinals (seen them in the tree's every once and a wile)

- What i believe is American crows , though i could be wrong , these also do seem to be the most numerous birds in the area

- and small birds like chickadees , though again i could be wrong on the species here

- also wile standing at my window this morning i saw what i think is a tree swallow in the maple in my front yard

admittedly birding is the thing i have read about the least thus far about wildlife and naturalizing my yard. So far it has more been about gardening with wild plants , and me and my wife coming up with a plan to reduce the monoculture of our lawn by removing it. Though of course this is a gradual project of ours that we do expect to take years.

So far our native habitat consists of a 12 ft by 12 ft area that i have blanketed seeds in , last fall. Plus the columbine , milkweed , blazing star , evening primrose , bergamot , black eyed susans , purple coneflower , butterfly weed , grey coneflower . that i have been starting indoors..

plus about a 3 ft by 10 ft patch of wild-strawberry i started last year .... ohh and our wild black raspberries ........ i know i am missing a few plants that we have .... and i didn't even start listing the numerous seed types i started in that 12 by 12 area ...

[fishlkmich]

Great! I'll be planting 2,000 sq. ft. with native plants and grasses this year. When you get to know a little bit about nature it is "natural" to want to know more. Our culture is moving away from nature at a pretty fair clip.

I think that you see Blue Jays going after peanuts. Bluebirds would prefer mealworms.

The black "bib" on a male house sparrow is a dead giveaway. You can't miss it. If you don't see them and you live in a city, I really want to know why.

I'd strongly recommend getting a good birding book. If you can afford the hard cover edition of this it is worth it:
Amazon.com: The Sibley Guide to Birds (9780679451228): David Allen Sibley: Books

Enjoy!

[havalotta]

Hmmmmmm

One flew over the cuckoos nest?

[linrose]

What the . . . ??? Our neighbors have boxes on every tree and put up more on poles and stakes. It's a nightmare. Bluebird boxes should be 100 yards apart.

[havalotta]

I almost went in the ditch doing a double take on that cluster while driving. Isn't that something.

[havalotta]

I saw this while on a tour last spring

Now that's.... a Condo

[Birding Bunch]

There's a row of them like that at a high school near town. I wonder if it was a shop project. I am not sure I ever see any birds around them, but we're driving by at about 55 mph.

One of the children put up a Gilbertson bluebird box at a neighbour's. The HOSP do not seem to like those. If I could convince some family members to not use pesticides, we'd be glad to put up Gilbertson boxes in their yards the next time we visit. The only trouble they would have is House Wrens, but at least they are native. My in laws have a box, but let house sparrows use it.