Put Up Your Birdhouse this Fall, Don't Wait till Spring!!!!!!!

Reasons to Put Up Your Birdhouse in the Fall

Often Decorative Birdhouses and Nesting Boxes are put up in the Spring just before nesting begins. Sometimes you will get lucky and have a pair of birds immediately occupy your bird house but more often it will take months, or even years for them to use your birdhouse.

Therefore the Fall, way before the breeding season begins, is the best time to put up your birdhouse. As Fall and Winter comes and goes your birdhouse will become weathered. Birds are more likely to be attracted to a weathered birdhouse when looking for a place to nest or roost because they are less likely to be noticed by predators.

Birds such as chickadees, titmice and nuthatches tend to be early nesters. Therefore with your Birdhouse up in the Fall it gives them time to find your birdhouse, inspect it well in advance, and be ready to nest as early as January or February. They will be sitting on their first batch of eggs by March or April.

Also, as the weather changes, non-migratory birds can use bird houses to escape from the chilling rain, wind, snow or ice and use them to roost at night.


Some important guidelines when mounting your birdhouse or nesting box:

• Try to face you birdhouse north or east to avoid overheating in the spring/summer.
• Face your bird house away from the prevailing winds of winter.
• Have water and food available.
• Do not place birdhouses too close to bird feeders.
• Mount bird houses on metal poles rather than nailing them to trees or hanging them from limbs. Houses on metal poles are less vulnerable to predators
• Birds can be a bit choosy in their future home. Some will inspect several houses before deciding on a particular one. You may wish to give the birds a few different decorative birdhouses to choose from, knowing that only one will be occupied.
• For birds that are tolerant of humans,such as the wren or house finches, the bird house may be mounted on your house.
• It may take a year or two for birds to move in. If they don't after two years, change its location
• Don't forget to place your birdhouse where you can easily watch it from indoors and enjoy all the action.

You can also attract several species with careful planning:

• If you put up more than one, keep houses well separated and out of sight of one another
• Keep about 100 yards between bluebird houses and 75 yards between swallow houses
• Use no more than four nest boxes/birdhouses per acre for any one species of small birds such as wrens or chickadees
• Use no more than one nest box/birdhouse per acre for any one species of large birds such as robins

Visit my website and buy a new Decorative Birdhouse or Nesting box for your Backyard Today!!!

Other Related Articles:
What you need to know when choosing a birdhouse
5 Elements Needed for Wildlife Habitat
Keeping predators away from your Birdhouses