Part 3

The use of a rag or similar object, instead of a bell or other noisemaker, is advised because the range of alarm is thereby limited to the immediate location of the bird house, so that the desired tenants will not be frightened by the operation of the alarm when they are within hearing.

Thickets

"Reserves" of the favorite environment are as much a need for some species as bird houses are for others. Widespread "improvement" and "beautification" along roadsides is destroying the thicket, the favored haunt of Song Sparrows, Catbirds, certain warblers, quail, and other desirable species. A "reserve" thicket may be located in a secluded part of the home grounds, hidden by a hedge if considered unsightly. It may be almost any shape, but not less than 20 feet in average diameter or much less than 400 square feet in area. Here weeds, tall grass, briars, and dense bushes are allowed to grow wild, forming a tangle as they will. If the bushes include such kinds as hackberry, hawthorn, sumac, elderberry, and chokecherry, the thicket's annual period of usefulness will be extended. Including such a winter food tree as the mountain ash will invite Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, grosbeaks, waxwings, and perhaps crossbills.

Dimensions for Various Houses

Following are specifications and remarks on the housing requirements of the birds by species. For related forms not included in the table see text.

Table I Diameter Depth Diameter Distance of from of from interior entrance entrance ground to (inches) (inches) (inches) entrance (feet)

House Wren 4¼-5½ 7-9 1 8-18 Black-capped Chickadee 3¼-4 7-9 1-1/8 8-15 White-breasted Nuthatch, 3¾-4½ 8-10 1½ 12-25 Tufted Titmouse Tree Swallow 4-5½ 6-8 1-3/8 8-30 Eastern Bluebird 4-5 8-10 1-5/8 8-20 Crested Flycatcher 5½-6½ 9-12 2-1/8 15-40 Flicker 6½-7½ 12-16 2½ 10-35 Purple Martin 6-7½ 6-8 2-1/8-2½ 12-14 Wood Duck, Hooded Merganser 7½ 12-15 4 10-20 Sparrow Hawk 6½-7 14-16 3 20-50 Saw-whet Owl 6-7½ 14-16 2-7/8 15-45 Screech Owl 7-8 14-16 3¼ 15-30

Nesting Box

Common House Finch 4½-6 Open 10-30

Nesting Shelves Width Length Height (inches) (inches) from ground (feet)

Robin 5-6 8 or more 8-30 Phoebe 3½-4½ 7 or more 8-20

For House Wrens, Bluebirds, and Tree Swallows, especially. For these the house may be of weathered fence-boards or even, if need be, of new lumber stained some dull tint. For chickadees, nuthatches, and Tufted Titmice, rough "slab" material is preferable. Dimensions given are for the House Wren. For other species, see Table I.]

TOP (INSIDE): 7¼^IN. x 7¼^IN. EDGE: ¾^IN. x 9^IN. SIDE: x 4¼^IN. FRONT (INSIDE): x 5¾^IN. {HOLE DIAMETER}: ¾^IN. BACK (OUTSIDE): 7^IN. x 5¾^IN. BOTTOM: 4¼^IN. x 4¼^IN. CONSTRUCTION THE FASTENING ON FRONT OF LID THE HINGE ON BACK OF LID

The House Wren

Nesting in all sorts of nooks and crannies, the House Wren is easily satisfied. Moreover, this is often the only desirable species which can be induced to build in so civilized and restricted a place as a small city lot. Slab construction may be employed or old weathered boards used, but new lumber seems nearly or quite as welcome to the wren.

Plate III illustrates a wren house and gives directions for building. Distance from the ground to the entrance of the house should be from 8 to 18 feet. The place safest from cats is on the side of a building. If the box is on a tree or wooden post, protection is afforded by a band of smooth sheet metal such as zinc, 2½ feet high, starting not less than 4 feet from the ground or other point that is within reach of cats.

Two or three wren houses spaced as far apart as the yard or garden allows will provide for the duplicate, unused, nests which these birds often build, or for a possible second brood.

Other Wrens

For the Bewick's Wren, which commonly nests around gardens, barns, and dwellings, the building directions are the same as for the House Wren.

The Carolina Wren of the south, more inclined to seek woods and thickets than to court man's society, is not ordinarily a bird house tenant. Still, a home like that described for the House Wren, but with the entrance having a diameter of 1¼ inch, is not unlikely to be selected by the Carolina if placed in a brushy area frequented by him and not much frequented by humans.

The Black-capped Chickadee

Lacking the semi-domestic status of wren and martin, the Black-capped Chickadee is not a regular bird-house addict. He prefers the seclusion of some unfrequented wood. Yet, not uncommonly, he is enticed by a bird house. The specifications and illustrations for the wren house will do for the chickadee. However, a cylindrical and smaller chamber with somewhat larger entrance (1-1/8 inch) is more likely to appeal to his uneducated taste. He is still a bird "with the bark on," and his house should be quite literally in keeping. The author personally much prefers to select a hollow branch, from which he cuts a foot-long section. He then drills an entrance hole near one end, nails a piece of slab in place for the bottom, provides a removable lid of the same material, and thus constitutes himself a proxy for the Downy Woodpecker in providing the chickadee with a home. (See Plate II.)

A wood lot or a neglected old orchard bordering a wood is the place for the chickadee house. See Table I for measurements.

Other Chickadees

The Mountain and other chickadees share the natural nesting habits of the Black-cap. Since this group is composed of birds of practically uniform size, a house for any species should be the same as that described for the Black-cap.

However, chickadees are in general birds of the woods. Few or none come so near to being birds of "home grounds" as do the Black-caps. Houses for them, therefore, will be appropriate chiefly about woods homes or camps.

The White-breasted Nuthatch

All that has been written of the chickadee and his housing problem applies also in a general way to the Nuthatch, except that a slightly larger entrance is needed for the latter bird (see measurements in Table I). The Nuthatch, somewhat more than his second cousins, the chickadees, is given to natural knot-holes in living trees. This propensity may well be humored by giving him a house of the hollowed-out trunk variety. If the trunk or branch so hollowed out has a knot which can be made of proper size to serve for the entrance, then that is to add the ultimate artistic finish, the final delicate "touch of nature." See Plate II.