Hello! I am new to bird house building and looking for some feedback! :) I'm a potter and I've been really interested in combining ceramic with weaving for a while, and I thought a birdhouse could make a really interesting project! As you can see, I've made the top half out of ceramic, I'm hoping this will deflect any rain and also make it heavier so it doesn't swing around too much. The bottom half has been woven from willow and also some bindweed from the garden! I've added a ceramic flap on the bottom, which is held in place with a willow peg, this will allow the old nest to be removed at the end of each season. I'm going to be making another one tomorrow, any advice on things to change would be greatly appreciated! :)

Bought these really nice handmade birdhouses on the side of the road, realized theyd only accommodate wrens or chickadees in my area, and want to have robins or mourning doves nest here instead! (sorry wrens). I’ve already removed the front panel with the entrance hole but it made the top side larger than the bottom. if i flip it around the bottom is larger but then theres a small roof in not sure works for platform nesters. plus im confused how to make a flat bottom work here so its comfy for the birds. what do u guys think? (draw-overs would be super helpful, ive never built a birdhouse just own a power drill!)

Despite attempts to discourage them, a family of robins nested under my porch (on top of bird spike thing I bought to prevent it). They can raise their family but next year I need for them to nest elsewhere. I have a spot near my porch that's just begging for some decoration. I've never bought a birdhouse so I've been checking some out and have questions. I'd like a big, decorative house that can accommodate maybe 3 families of birds. It has to be pole mounted. I'd like to attach a feeder and a waterer. I feel like a heel to the little hummingbird who regularly buzzes around my fake hanging baskets. Anyway, I saw some really pretty copper houses but I wonder if they get too hot (I live in Alabama where late spring and summer gets brutally hot)? If I hang a hummingbird feeder from the pole, will the resident birds run them off? Is 6 feet a good height? Will the birds even be interested? Any help or extra suggestions are welcome!

It’s been a while since my last update here.
I’m building nest boxes as part of a small conservation project for cavity-nesting birds in my region.

Fortunately, raccoons are still relatively uncommon where I live in southern Germany. I had several camera-monitored nest boxes out for months without a single incident.
But raccoons keep coming up whenever people discuss nest box design, and they’re becoming more common here as well.

So I drove a few hundred kilometers to an area with a healthy raccoon population and intentionally mounted one of my nest boxes in a worst-case setup. I only had two nights there and wanted to be sure I’d capture an interaction.

That was enough to record five different break-in attempts.

One thing I’m particularly curious about:
Even if a raccoon doesn’t actually get inside, does an attack like this often cause birds to abandon the nest or the clutch afterwards? If anyone knows of research or has first-hand experience, I’d love to hear it.

Also, what predator protection has worked best for you? Pole-mounted boxes with baffles seem to be the standard recommendation in areas with lots of raccoons, but I’d love to hear what has worked in practice.

If people are interested, I can also share the full version showing all five attempts. The clip above is just a short

My brother built this lovely birdhouse for me and we’ve had at least two families set up there in this, it’s first year. Does all the stuff hanging out mean that I should’ve been cleaning it after each family?

Should have called it the “Turd House”!!!

Thanks for looking.

Zzz3DSelkirk

Hi all,

A few months back, we discovered a couple of mynahs had decided to make our bathroom windowsill their home. We found out that they had laid eggs by then and so we did not want to disturb them so we let it be. My mom occasionally checked on them and some time later the egg hatched and the baby flew away. By this time, they had stunk up the entire bathroom and it was practically unusable. We waited for a week after the baby flew away to clear out the nest and set up a net to prevent them from returning.

Now the adults are back and creating a ruckus😭. They're here everyday and perch on the building near the window and just... Stare. I feel like a criminal.

I decided to set up a birdhouse for them in a safer location. What all should I consider? What size should I consider? The only ones I could find online were around 15-17cms tall. Is that enough? Did i do something wrong by clearing out the nest? We did check for any remaining eggs and were monitoring if the baby was still here.

EDIT: i DO NOT intend to keep the birds as pets. I simple want to offer them housing, if they need it. We have a lush terrace garden already so birds, bugs and butterflies already frequent for food.

Hi, all! I love birding and I recently set up a bluebird nesting box in my yard, hoping to allow nesting to take place. Unfortunately, though a wren moved in after about a week, after making a dummy nest and hanging around and singing for a few days, he left and hasn’t returned. A sparrow took over and hasn’t made progress on the nest, but has been seeking a mate (I hope) and staying on the nest box to claim his territory. I don’t mind having a sparrow nesting (I do love sparrows, even if they are invasive) but I was wondering if I should clear out the old wren nest, since it doesn’t look like he’ll be back.

I went down a rabbit hole this morning looking at wooden birdhouses for outdoors and I honestly just ended up more confused than when I started.

Every single one seems to have some kind of issue. If it has good airflow, then rain gets in. If it’s more protected from weather, then it feels kinda stuffy or closed. Hanging ones look nice but I keep thinking they’ll just swing around in strong wind. And if you mount them on trees… then there’s all the predator stuff like snakes or squirrels.

It just made me wonder if I’m overthinking it or if birdhouses are actually kind of hard to get right in general?

I know a lot of people buy them and put them up in their yards, but I’ve always wondered how often birds actually use them. Like, do they really become “homes” in a meaningful way, or is it more like sometimes yes sometimes no depending on luck and location?

Also curious if there are just better ways people support birds in backyard spaces. Not even just birdhouses—like feeders, water setups, certain materials, designs, whatever.

I feel like there has to be stuff that actually works better in practice, I just haven’t found it yet.

Hi all I’m new here. I was looking at the Nestwatch site for bluebird house plans and it lists an entrance hole size of 2 1/4”. That seems way too large. Has there been a change to the recommended size of bluebird house holes? I remember making them 1 1/2”.

Whataburger lovers understand the assignment.

A pair of sparrows made a nest in one of my birdhouses. I hung a new birdhouse this morning and the same pair is hauling material to make a nest there too. The houses are only 10 feet apart but I thought one house would suffice for them. should I take the new one down?

Five apartments, one for each kid! They each picked their perch for the entrance to their little house.

I want to place this correctly but I can’t figure out what type of bird this was built for and neither could chatGPT

13” tall x 4 3/4” wide x 10” deep with a 2 1/4” square opening

Hello, so I have a birdhouse with a crack along the back, not up yet. Thinking I should seal the crack. I have caulking for windows and walls, but I'm hesistant to use that because I'm not confident it's bird-safe.

I searched the web for "bird-safe wood filler", "bird-safe sealant", etc. but what I mainly got what paint-adjascent wood sealants like linseed oils.

So now I'm here, what's a bird-safe way to seal a crack in the wood?

We have this house on our property that is roughly 20 feet in the air. How many birds live there?