Birds and Bird Feeders

Archive for November, 2009

By Lee Dobbins

Bird house making is really easy as long as you love what you are doing. It is also an effective way to make your house – as well as you – feel chirpy and bright in the morning. Believe it or not, nothing beats having birds outside your homes. The following are tips and advice to make the dream bird house that you always imagined you would have. Also included are the ways and methods of appropriately setting up the bird houses.

First things first, the point of bird houses is to bring in birds. Attracting them however is just half of the story, it is making them return as much as they possibly could, that is the challenge. Hopefully, the following guidelines will work.

Have a roof that is hinged

Providing a roof that is hinged on the sides is an effective way for you to make house cleaning a lot easier especially during the spring. Spring cleaning during the early weeks of March is a good idea. As much as possible, use hinges that are rust proof. Remember that animals such as raccoons are able to open an eye and a hook.

Place appropriate ventilation

Drill four drain holes that measure about one fourth inch in every bird house’s bottom. Also, add two five eighth hole ventilations on the top of each house’s side.

Place a roof

Provide a bird house roof that has at least an overhang of two inches in the bird house’s front in order to protect the hole’s entrance from rain that is driven by wind as well as to prevent animals like cats from reaching inside. Also, the sides of the bird house should be enclosed towards the floor in order to keep the rain from having to seep inside the bird house nest.

Try to recess the bird house floor about one fourth of an inch from the bird house’s bottom in order to prevent it from rotting as caused by the moisture.

Bird house perches

Believe it or not, putting perches on the bird house is a no-no. The birds that do appreciate and do perch are the starlings and the sparrows. For bird houses of song birds, keep the holes of the entrance about an inch and three eights inch small in order to keep the house sparrows and starlings out. Of course, the exception are the purple martins.

How should the bird houses be spaced?

If there are other bird houses or boxes near, they should therefore be spaced appropriately about twenty five feet far from each other. Houses for bluebirds meanwhile require about three hundred feet. The space is important in order to reduce any conflicts. Another reason for this is because a lot of birds are actually territorial and so protecting the area around the bird’s nest is important. The exception to this are mergansers, wood ducks and goldeneye. Putting their bird houses close to each other is okay.

Purple martins meanwhile prefer to live in bird colonies and so apartment bird houses is their specific preference and not single family bird houses.

What kind of material is best for bird houses?

The best to use is wood. As much as possible, avoid lumber that is treated with pressure because once wet, it excretes vapors that poisons birds. Using preservatives like stain or paint could be used on the box’s outside, especially the back. Using the chemical preservative creosote should also be avoided.

Try not to use cartons of milk, tin cans, or metal. These materials could overheat and destroy the bird eggs as well as the bird younglings. An exception however are the commercial martin aluminum bird houses.

Be careful with uninvited guests such as mice, wasps, bees or squirrels. Once found, remove them as soon as possible. Be careful though as such animals could sting and hurt you.

All in all, making a bird house is not simply hammering and pasting one material to another. It requires as delicate a care as creating an actual house or room for a human being.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How To Make Your Own Bird House

By Wendy Mitchell

Whether it’s playing in the park, visiting a zoo or just looking out a window, experts say there are plenty of everyday activities that can be used to teach children to respect the environment and wildlife around them.

The key is to make the lessons fun and to tie them to interests that kids already have.

For instance, if your child loves sharks, talk to him about oceans and how people can keep them clean. Or, have a favorite character help deliver the message with fun, interactive play. Fisher-Price’s Go Diego Go! line offers a terrific collection of toys inspired by the Nick Jr. show “Go, Diego, Go!” In the show, Diego races to the rescue of animals and the environment. Try asking your children questions about why it’s important for Diego to help his animal friends and what we can do to help ours.

There are also toys, including Fisher-Price’s Diego Rescue a Friend Assortment, and Diego Animal Caller, that let children make animal sounds or pretend to rescue baby jaguars, elephants, lions, spider monkeys, maned wolf pups and spectacled bears. There’s even the Diego Mobile Rescue Unit that includes everything kids need to help Diego rescue his animal friends-a kid-tough toy truck, a base of operations, complete with mission post and veterinary center, and a launch pad with airstrip and airplane.

Parents can also share these tips with their kids to help them be an Animal Rescuer, just like their hero, Diego:

• Respect Nature-Animals and plants need their space. When you see plants and animals, look, but don’t touch. Instead, get a closer look at nature with your binoculars, camera or by drawing what you see.
• Create a Habitat-You can create healthy and safe homes for animals right in your backyard. Help your family and friends plant trees and flowers in the yard to serve as shelter for small animals, or build and hang a bird feeder.
• Clean up a Park-Everyone can work together to keep environments clean. As an Animal Rescuer, you can get your parents and a group of friends together and head to your community park. Give each helper a garbage bag and gloves, and send everyone out on a treasure hunt to pick up paper, cans and other litter.
• Reduce Waste-Animal Rescuers help save water, too. Always turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth and after washing your hands. If you do, you’ll save water and energy, since it takes a lot of power to pump that water out.
• Transform Your Trash-Give paper, plastic and glass materials to an adult to be recycled. Or get creative with your trash. Wrap a friend’s birthday gift in the Sunday comics section or store your crayons in an empty coffee can.

For more information and ideas, visit www.fisher-price.com. Kids’ favorite characters can help them learn important lessons about rescuing animals and protecting the environment.

Building your own can be fun. You can get exactly what you want and design it to your specifications. There are plenty of plans you can get to make this process work out for you. Look for plans that offer you step by step instructions. Some are for beginners and others are for more advanced skill levels. Make sure you get the plans that will be the best for you to work with.

Many home improvement stores offer books with plans in them. You can flip though them to see what is offered. These books are often affordable and they have plenty of plans to choose from. If you will be making plenty of birdhouses for your own use or to sell this could be the best route to take. This will keep the cost of the plans low and give you plenty of variety to choose from as well.

You can also find plans online. You can look at the various pictures and then choose what you want to make. In most instances you will get a download link to access the plans as soon as you pay for it. This means you don’t have to wait for it to be mailed to you. Just save the plans to your computer and print out a copy to work from as well.

Making birdhouses may be a hobby you enjoy or a way for you to make money. You can easily sell them online or at craft shows. Having excellent plans to work from will ensure you have great looking birdhouses to sell. If you have creative ideas for birdhouses, you can sell your own plans to others as well. You will be surprised at how many people go online each day to search for plans.

You won’t be disappointed with the wide selection of them offered either. Plans are extremely affordable so you can buy them and use them over and over again. It is less expensive to make a on your own than to buy one. You can also be very proud of your work and display it in your yard.

By Terry Edwards

Getting the right large bird cage for your favorite birds is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Bird cages come in many different price ranges, as well as all sorts of sizes and styles.

So, what do you look for when picking out the best cage? We will look at some of the most important points to help you decide.

1. Price – The first thing to consider is what your budget is. There is no sense in wasting time looking at custom bird cages if you know that they are out of your price range. If you’re on a limited budget, look at the many different discount bird cages.

2. Bird – What kind of birds will be making the cage their home? This is important because different birds all have different requirements.

For example, if you have parakeets or canaries, then you’ll want to go with a small cage. But, if you have parrots or cockatoos, you would want to get a large bird cage.

3. Decor – This point may seem rather odd, but it’s important to a lot of people. You’ll want to find a cage that goes well with your interior. You wouldn’t be happy for very long if the bird cage clashed with your furniture scheme.

Once you know the answers to these questions you can begin your search. One other item that I would point out is the cage door. Be sure the door is big and makes it easy for your feathered friend to get in and out of.

Finding the right large bird cage isn’t too difficult when you know what to look for.

You can find out much more about a Large Bird Cage as well as more information on everything to do with bird cages on our website at www.BirdCages.InfoFromA-z.com