1.
How do I site and mount a bird house?
2. When is the best time to put up
a bird house?
3. How do I maintain my bird house?
4. How do I choose the opening diameter
for my bird house?
1. How do I site and mount a bird
house?
Hang the box in shoulder height or higher. The entrance hole should
face between north and east. The Garden Bird Box is best placed
in a shadowy spot, but morning or afternoon sun is acceptable.
The box must not have any branches near it that predators can
sit on, and there must be a clear flying path into the box.
Use good quality rope that you first pull through the box´s
mounting holes and then around the trunk , branch or bush you
are mounting the box to. If you mount the box on a fence or wall,
you can use nails.
2. When is the best time to put up
a bird house?
There is never a bad time to put up bird boxes, you
decide when to put up the box. The birds seem to prefer new boxes
be put up in the fall and winter, but new bird boxes in spring
or summer will increase the likelihood of birds electing to stay
in your garden for the next breeding season.
The most important thing is, you should put up bird boxes no
matter what time of the year. You should do so properly, so the
birds are likely to use it, and are safe from predators.
Only two things determine how many birds want to stay in your
garden, the amount of available food and number of appropriate
bird boxes and breeding places.
Avoid pesticides in your garden – especially in the birds
breeding season. By spraying pesticides you rob the birds of food
and pollute the environment. A pair of tits will catch approximately
10.000-15.000 insects to raise a brood.
3. How do I maintain my bird house?
Always inspect the box carefully for potential occupant
before any handling. If there are any accupants let the box hang
undisturbed.
Remember to clean the Bird Box in the fall, October or November.
Just open the lid on the box and remove the nest material with
a stick. The material is full of mites and lice, so rinse the
box with hot or boiling water. The Garden Bird Box can easily
handle it, but the lice and mites can not.
If there was a nest in the box, mount the box the same place
you took it from. The bird species that nested in the box will
almost always return to the same site and box for the next breading
season.
4. How do I choose the opening diameter
for my bird house?
The Garden Bird Box comes with two hole plates so you can make
the size attractive to the bird you desire. The hole plate also
serves as reinforcement, effectively preventing woodpeckers or
other birds from making the hole larger.
28 mm hole (1 1/8"): blue tit, coal tit, marsh tit
32 mm hole (1 1/4"): great tit, house sparrow, collared flycatcher
The Starling Box comes with a 50mm hole that also serves to protect
the box from woodpeckers that might attempt to make the entrance
hole larger.
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