Ben demonstrates how to install a bluebird house in your own backyard! Migration season is right around the corner, so it's a great time to help provide some habitat for birds on the move.
Video Transcript:
Hi folks, Ben Prater here, Southeast Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife.
And if you're like me, you're spending a lot of time at home lately, probably looking around for fun projects to keep yourself busy during these uncertain times.
Well, it's always a good idea to think about what you can do for wildlife in your own backyard. Something that's really easy to achieve is to install a bluebird house.
It's a great time of the year in the spring to do this before these bluebirds move through and start establishing nests.
And you can buy bluebird boxes pre-built or it's a fun family project to build your own at home.
This is one that we've made. It's made from cedar, which will be great to help last during inclement weather and not rot very quickly.
And also another important feature of this box is that it does have a guard around the entrance hole, which keeps it safe from pecking birds, like crows that go in there and try to damage the nest.
It also can open so you can clean it out seasonally as you need to. And you don't need a lot of tools, but what you do need is an area in your yard that's fairly open and to the edge of that opening you've got either a 4x4 post that you can install or a tree about that same size.
I've chosen to use the tree here and what you want to look for is a tree that's clear around the area, not a lot of brush, other limbs where predators like snakes can crawl up.
You also want to make sure your box is facing east and the easiest way to do that is to come out in the morning and wherever the sun is facing, that's pointing in your eastern directions, the sun rises in the east.
And again you don't need many tools. All I have here is a 2-inch wood screw, already pre-drilled into the box and you want to install the box about 4-6 feet up and I recommend doing it in a place where it gives the birds a little bit of privacy, but also allows you to get a good peak when they come in to nest.
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There you have it - putting up your very own bluebird box. Thanks!
