Feeders, water and birdhouses are three good ways to bring birds to your yard. The latter offers pleasures the former do not.
Birds that nest in houses or boxes are obligate cavity nesters: obligated by nature to nest only in a confined space of some kind. For millions of years that was holes in trees, but opportunities are seriously diminished these days. We trim trees, we cut them down, particularly trees beginning to show their age.
So, we have birdhouses.
In birdhouses in our yard, we have nesting house wrens, black-capped chickadees, great crested flycatchers, wood ducks and hooded mergansers, the latter two in houses adjacent to the pond in our backyard.
We get to watch the birds court, collect nesting material, feed hatchlings and, finally, see the fledged young birds. There is more to the story than feeders alone.
You can buy birdhouses or build them yourself. If buying is better for you, please watch a box construction video first (see below). It will acquaint you with the important elements a suitable birdhouse must have:
1. Size of house, varies by species.
2. Type of wood used (cedar is best).
