If you’ve been thinking about building your own wild bird nesting boxes for the Spring season, this article may help you determine appropriate sizes for the birds you hope to attract.

Appropriateness of size considerations are vital to bird house success. First to attract the right birds and distract the wrong ones. Next to ensure that the parents and nestlings are safe from predators. And finally correct temperature and ventilation.

How elaborate you make your bird house depends on your personal sense of aesthetics. For the most part, all the birds care about is their safety and the right dimensions: box height, depth and floor, diameter of entrance hole, and height of hole above the box floor. Continue Reading »

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This is more common than most people think, certainly I’d never thought of it when I lived in the city and only fed the ducks down at the lake.

At least once in a lifetime, no matter where you live, you’ll come across a baby bird orphan. Perhaps laying on the road, your lawn on even on your front porch.

At that point, you’ll have to decide if you should rescue it or leave it to fend for itself?

In most cases, and yes I do know how hard it is to walk away from a helpless animal, it is best to let nature take its course without your intervention. Of course I say this, but I don’t always do this. Usually I’ll back off and sit nearby for an hour or so just to protect the orphaned baby bird from predators should they come by.

But making that decision - should I rescue or walk away - is hard. If the baby bird is fully feathered, chances are pretty good it doesn’t need our help anyway. Each spring, baby birds leave the nest and have to learn to be adults. Their parents are often watching nearby (something I’ve learned by sitting for an hour and waiting). The wild bird parents really are best equipped to take care of the babies. The best way to help these tiny fledglings is simply to keep dogs, cats and hawks away.

On the other hand, accidents do happen. Continue Reading »

Bird houses should be easily accessible to prying human eyes. Not so that you can spy on and disrupt the nesting behaviour of your wild birds, but so you can see how your birds are doing and, when the time comes, easily clean out the house.

Part of being a responsible bird house landlord is your willingness to look after your wild tenants. If you monitor your bird houses every week and evict unwanted creatures such as house sparrows, starlings, rodents, snakes, and insects, you’ll have much more success in the long run.

For your own safety, please be careful when you inspect those wild bird houses. Continue Reading »

The most common complaints I hear from others are regarding problems of uninvited guests at the feeder.

These ‘guests’ fall into two categories - those interested in the seeds (squirrels and chipmunks, rats and mice, starlings and house sparrows), and those interested in a bird for dinner (cats and hawks).

If you have trees, you will get to know squirrels. You may marvel at their antics, until they take over your bird feeders. Then you’ll either love them or hate them. Continue Reading »