Birdhouse do-over.

Sometimes the things I create don't quite get it...like something is off with it...needs to be tweaked.  Well, that can be said for this birdhouse above.  The "duplex" birdhouse sat in the yard untouched by any of the nesting songbirds this year...so you don't have to tell me twice...the local birds said, "fail!"  Time for a do-over.

I'd been reading on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website about various important traits of homemade birdhouses...one detail of which has to do with the hole size.  If the hole size is too big then predator birds can get in and kill the littler ones. (I did witness a starling this year trying to wreak havoc on a bluebird pair that claimed one of my houses as their nesting site.)  If it's too small...well obviously there will be no takers.

The other interesting detail I was reading about was to do with not installing perches.  Perches simply create a ledge for predator birds to sit on while poking and jabbing through the hole at the baby birds.

I was also interesting is learning about tree clinging birds that are native to this area...the tree clingers and the bit about no perches then gave me the idea of using a natural bark like front...in an effort to attract these types of birds to nest.

So here's the do-over version.

There have been some clingers come round and check it out...but I imagine that since it's long past nest season...maybe we will have some takers on this one next year.

Time will tell.  And the backyard birding/nestbox experiments continue.

Stay tuned...