Boy Bird House Architecture

Part 1

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BOY BIRD HOUSE ARCHITECTURE

By LEON H. BAXTER

Director of Manual Training, Public Schools St. Johnsbury, Vt.

THE BRUCE PUBLISHING CO. MILWAUKEE. WIS.

Copyright, 1920 THE BRUCE PUBLISHING CO.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

It is with much pleasure that I commend to the public this little book regarding the construction of Bird Houses. As Instructor in Nature Study at the Fairbanks Museum it has been my privilege and pleasure to co-operate closely with Mr. Baxter’s work in the manual training department of the local schools. Through his instruction our boys are proud to be considered natural guardians of bird homes in our town, which is veritably a bird sanctuary. About two hundred suitable nesting boxes have been placed in proper localities during the past three years.

The Museum offers prizes each year to the boys of Mr. Baxter’s classes and our exhibit of Bird Houses on the first Saturday in April is an event that attracts many proud parents to inspect the work of their children.

In this little book, Mr. Baxter tells very explicitly just how any one can build suitable houses to attract our native birds.

Just here I would like to say that any town or community that protects its birds, insures its harvests against destruction by insect pests. Therefore the economic value of Bird Houses is even greater than the aesthetic. The results actually accomplished by Mr. Baxter along these lines vouch for the accuracy of the information contained in this little book.

INEZ ADDIE HOWE, Instructor in Nature Study.

The Fairbanks Museum, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

To the lover of the open, the woods, the fields, and waterways and all of God’s wild things, this book is affectionately dedicated.

To lead the boy and girl toward their proper relationship with their feathered friends of the air, and to instil the feeling of protection toward our native birds, these pages have been written and these designs made.

What is offered between the covers of this little book is the results of study and observation of birds and their ways covering a period of six years.

Each drawing offered is of a proven house, one that has served as a home for some of our songsters and if the directions, here set down, are faithfully followed, equal success will crown the builders’ efforts.

While the greater part of the text is the result of knowledge which the writer has gleaned at first hand, yet the author has several times quoted from the text of the Farmers’ Bulletin No. 621, United States Department of Agriculture, and from a contribution by Edward Howe Forbush, in Bulletin No. 1, published by The National Association of Audubon Societies. Fig. 2, the photograph showing a blue bird entering a box, is by S. P. Brownell, East Barnet, Vt.

LEON H. BAXTER.

St. Johnsbury, Vt. Feb. 2, 1920.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Our Friends the Birds 11

Birds That Adapt Themselves to Nesting Boxes 12

The Bluebirds 13

The Robin 14

The Titmice 14

Part 2

The Wrens 15

The Woodpecker 16

Bird House Material 16

Methods of Finishing Exteriors 18

Bird Box Specifications 20

Typical Bird House Specifications 21

Methods of Conducting a Bird House Contest 23

Bird House Day 26

Bird Enemies 27

General Directions for Starting Work on the Bird Boxes 28

Winter Care of the Birds 35

Plate 1—Blue Bird House 41

Plate 2—Blue Bird House 42

Plate 3—Blue Bird House 43

Plate 4—Blue Bird House 44

Plate 5—Blue Bird House 45

Plate 6—Box for Robins 46

Plate 7—Box for Robins 47

Plate 8—Box for Wrens 48

Plate 9—Double Wren House 49

Plate 10—Downy Woodpecker House 50

Plate 11—Box for Hairy Woodpeckers 51

Plate 12—Flicker House 52

Plate 13—Woodpecker House 53

Plate 14—Nuthatch House 54

Plate 15—Nuthatch House 55

Plate 16—Box for Tree Swallow 56

Plate 17—Titmouse House 57

Part 3

Plate 18—Chickadee House 58

Plate 19—Houses from Common Objects 59

Plate 19a—Suggested Designs for Boxes 60

Plate 20—Feeding Devices 61

OUR FRIENDS THE BIRDS

It has been positively proven that birds will return annually in greater numbers to localities where assistance, in the form of nesting boxes, has been rendered by those interested in bird welfare, than to those places where no such provision has been made.

A progressive study of our native birds by competent individuals, especially through the United States Department of Agriculture in its Farmers’ Bulletins, has shown very decisively that the return made by our feathered friends by ridding our gardens and orchards of destructive worms and insects, is many times as valuable as the small commission they collect by sampling a berry or two here and there.

Innumerable quantities of seeds of plants and weeds which would otherwise overun our gardens are eaten by the birds. This, together with the fact that these same birds with their brilliant plumage and beautiful songs, are a valuable asset to our neighborhood, ought certainly to impress us that they are deserving of our assistance and protection. Assistance is best afforded by preparing suitable houses and feeding shelves for them, and also by placing bits of string, horsehair, and other nesting material convenient for them. Protection is simple and may be limited to laws safeguarding birds from harm, to killing off as many as possible of the English sparrows, and to seeing that cats are not allowed any undue opportunity for harming them.

The boy or girl who puts up boxes for the birds to nest in, supplies them with drinking and bathing places, and provides food for those species which remain in winter, is certain of an unfailing source of pleasure, which can never be known to any one who pursues them with airgun and stones, or simply ignores their presence. The chances are that the bird-loving boy or girl will make the better citizen.

BIRDS THAT ADAPT THEMSELVES TO NESTING BOXES.

There is quite a large number of birds that easily adapt themselves to the artificially made house. The main thing is to consider the type of house that will appeal to the intended tenants, one that approaches nearest to their natural desires and nesting sites.

Bluebirds and house wrens are the easiest to entice to the nesting box. Plain weather stained boxes or those covered with bark have proven to be the best type.

Purple martins nest in colonies but are scarce now in contrast to their former numbers. Tree swallows take to the boxes, but if an occasion arises where they have a choice between the box and a natural cavity, generally the latter will be selected.

Chickadees and flickers take to the home-made box and, sometimes the little screech owl occupies one of the man-made residences.

He makes a worthy tenant, for as a mouser, he is superior to the house cat.

Robin Red Breast is another easily attracted native bird. Last year I put up a robin shelf, similar to the ones shown in the following drawings, and inside of fifteen minutes Mr. and Mrs. Robin had hired the apartment for the season and were soon busily engaged in weaving the nest within fifteen feet of where we were observing them.

THE BLUEBIRDS.

The eastern bluebird is a common inhabitant of all States east of the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf of Mexico to Southern Canada.

In the Mississippi Valley it winters as far north as Southern Illinois, and in the East as far as Pennsylvania. It is one of the earliest northern migrants and everywhere is hailed as a harbinger of spring.

Domestic in habits, it frequents orchards and gardens and builds close to human habitations.

Fig. 1 shows a bluebird at the entrance to an artificially hollowed tree trunk, feeding its young. Fig. 2 shows another bluebird about to enter a bird box.

THE ROBIN.

To many the robin is the most cherished of birds and is found throughout the States east of the Great Plains, and is represented farther west and south by slightly different sub-species. It breeds far north through Canada, and is found even in Alaska. It is quite fearless and will occupy a bird shelf close to human habitation. The robin, however, refuses the enclosed house and therefore the front and one side should be made open.

THE TITMICE.

These birds, although insignificant in size, have enormous appetites and feed chiefly on small insects and their eggs that wholly escape the search of larger birds. This bird, or some of its sub-species, occupies the whole of the United States north of the latitude of Washington and extends into Canada.

In the eastern portion of the country the best known and most widely distributed species is the common black capped chickadee. Fig. 3 shows a chickadee feeding from the hand.

THE WRENS.

The diminutive house wren frequents barns and gardens and particularly old orchards in which the trees are partially decayed. He makes his nest in a hollow where perhaps a woodpecker had a domicile the year before, but he is a pugnacious character, and if he happens to fancy one of the boxes put up for bluebirds, he does not hesitate to take it. He is usually not slow to avail himself of boxes, gourds, tin cans, or empty jars placed for his accommodation.

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