An interesting observation: there are much fewer birds in the city than in the city. Why is that? It turns out that in the city for birds there are many secluded places. But the most frequent haven are lampposts. Through a narrow gap near the lamp, the bird squeezes inward. Here, dropping down the trunk of a pipe, she winds her nest on a coil of wires. Can you imagine the conditions in which a bird lives, a little fighter against plant pests? But a person is able to thank winged helpers, but how? Build a birdhouse, the dimensions of which will be larger than the lamp tube.
Materials for construction
To determine how to build a birdhouse for starlings, you need to select the appropriate material. Best suited for construction are wooden boards exclusively of hardwood - birch, alder, aspen. Coniferous wood is not recommended. It releases tar, which makes the surfaces of bird houses sticky. Not suitable for plywood birdhouse. It retains heat poorly, making the new building very cold. And practically does not miss the sounds, very important for birds, especially when a danger occurs. A compressed tree (fiberboard, chipboard) emits toxins, so it is generally not suitable for a birdhouse.
Birdhouse drawing
Correctly calculated and laid out scheme will greatly simplify the construction process. Therefore, before you build a birdhouse, the drawing must be made taking into account all the necessary dimensions. The optimal height of the house for starling is 35 cm. For the bottom, a blank in the form of a square with a side of 16 cm will be required. The letch should be 5-6 centimeters in diameter. Important! Before you build a birdhouse, the dimensions should be checked several times. If the proposed housing feathered feels crowded, they just side will bypass your new building. However, it is not worth chasing large sizes. Otherwise, the offspring raised in too spacious apartments will be painful and weak.
Step-by-step instruction
Creating a simple birdhouse does not require great skills or experience working with a tree. The main thing is to use the drawings correctly. If you are building a bird house for the first time, then the question naturally arises: how to build a birdhouse in stages?
The image shows a diagram of a traditional durable house, known to everyone since childhood.
The sides of the roof are different. One should be longer by the thickness of the board to cover the edge of the first. After all, a birdhouse should not only be practical, but also have an excellent appearance.
After you cut all the blanks from the board, be sure to check whether they make up the birdhouse correctly. If all the previous tips have been taken into account, then there should not be any problems when assembling the house.
It’s best not to drive nails, but to drill small holes. The nail may not enter the wood correctly, then the sharp edge will stick out in the birdhouse, making the housing unsafe enough for birds. And maybe even chop wood. To make the drilling process as safe as possible, fix the wooden parts in several C-clamps. Before using nails or screws, be sure to glue the edges of the sides with good wood glue.
After assembling the frame, you should do the round entrance. For such purposes there is a special drill. It very quickly and accurately drills a hole. Such a summer will turn out with smooth edges, and therefore does not need additional grinding.
If there is no such drill, drill a few holes inside the circle, and then saw out the desired notch with a jigsaw. Not bad for this purpose fit rot.
There is one more method how to make a notch. But it assumes a frame not yet assembled. The front board can be divided in the center into two halves. Easy enough with the help of a chisel, the necessary half-holes are cut down. You can connect both halves with the help of spikes - nails with broken hats.
The next step is the installation of the roof.
Under the tap-hole it is necessary to place a stick 1.5 cm thick - a porch. Too large a porch will invariably attract ravens and jackdaws to the birdhouse.
Types of houses
It is customary to call any birdhouse a birdhouse, although it is not built for starlings alone. Other birds also need housing. How to build a birdhouse for birds - depends on the characteristics of future residents. For example, for titmouses, a 25-30 cm high housing is being built. The bottom should be a square with a side of 10-12 cm. The letlet for tits is 30-35 mm in diameter.
Wagtail housing requires a completely different design. The bird itself does not have sufficient tenacity of the legs, so in front of the house she needs a certain ladder. And you need to have such a house under the roof, approximately at a height of three to five meters.
The food mum feels more comfortable in a house with two through holes. They are located on the left and right. Such additional letlets allow the bird to hide in time if a predator attacks the housing.
Decorative houses
Fans of original solutions can dream a little. It’s enough to decorate a birdhouse quite a bit, and it will take on a truly fantastic look. The birdhouse stylized as a village house looks originally. For birds, it does not matter how the housing looks from the outside. The main thing is that it is warm and dry inside. A designer will bring a lot of pleasure to decorate the housing of birds.
If you wish, it’s easy to build even an apartment building. Several families will settle in such a birdhouse at once, who will welcome the rising sun with loud, joyful twittering. In this case, there will be no difficulties how to build a birdhouse. The photo below clearly illustrates the process.
The house can vary significantly in shape. An interesting solution is housing in the form of a rhombus. However, the question arises - is it suitable for birds?
It is up to you to decide: how to build a birdhouse, the dimensions and decor of which completely depend on the intended residents and your skills.
Interesting ideas
The best housing option for birds is a wooden birdhouse. It is warm, and the birds in it feel like in a hollow tree. However, not everyone has the opportunity to independently build such housing. In this case, improvised materials will help out.
A beautiful birdhouse is obtained from a log. The core can be selected using a chisel. It remains only to drill a hole for entry and think through the roof.
Housing for birds can be built even from an ordinary plastic bottle. But such a house must be insulated. You should tie the bottle round with warm ropes or even tie a tight cover. And do not forget about sharp sections of the hole. It is better to paste over the perimeter with tape.
How to install a birdhouse?
So, in theory, you already know how to properly build a birdhouse, but the correct installation of a house is also an important point in creating housing.
Most often, the birdhouse is nailed to a long pole, which is then screwed with a wire to a tree about 5-7 meters from the ground. Hang the house a little bent forward, then rainwater will not flow into the housing to the birds. It is worth considering the direction. Letok should go south or east.
House protection
Everyone knows that cats are great hunters. They are so dexterous that they can catch a bird even on the fly. Based on this, you need to protect the birdhouse as much as possible from the teeth and claws of the predator. Place a plywood circle in the middle of the pole parallel to the ground. The diameter of the circle should be 45-50 cm. Cats cannot overcome such a barrier, and the chicks will remain safe and sound.
General recommendations
Before building a birdhouse, be sure to dry the material. Raw wood will dry out very quickly and the house will become uninhabitable.
At the bottom of the birdhouse, it’s nice to pour a small layer of earth, peat and sawdust. Such a layer should be no more than 5 cm.
It is very easy to make the roof removable. Then, when cleaning the house, when the tenants leave the house in autumn, there will be no particular difficulties. To do this, from the inside of the roof, nail a thick board that will enter the house, like a cork in the neck of a bottle.
And painting the house is not recommended. The smell of paint can scare away the birds. But if you really want to, then choose odorless paint. And remember: birds don't like the color blue at all.
Instead of a conclusion
Knowing how to build a birdhouse, the size of future housing is easy to calculate. With the help of such a house you can not only alleviate the fate of birds, but also get rid of plant pests. One brood is enough to twist to protect the stands from thousands of May beetles and larvae in just 5 days! And the birds will bring the greatest joy to children. Indeed, for children that is familiar and understandable, for children - a window into the wonderful world of wildlife!