Of late I have also used an open shelter. It consists of a tray about five inches square, roofed over, and serves two purposes. For winter use I fasten a small wire pocket on it, into which I put beef suet. Then I mount this shelter about five feet high on a tree. Around the trunk I fasten strings of peanuts; in the tray I keep shelled corn, of which cardinals are especially fond. The English sparrow does not care for the suet, and as he cannot manage the corn nor the peanuts, this feedery attracts only desirable birds. In March I remove the wire pocket, and mount the shelter a few feet higher, to serve as a nest shelter for robins. The roof will ward off heavy rains, which destroy so many robin’s nests. A similar shelter, if fastened in the shade on a wall, might attract phœbes.
When one starts out to make bird houses he should decide first of all what birds he wishes to attract by means of them. Booklets containing drawings and instructions for making houses for many kinds of house-nesting birds can be had free by addressing a postcard to the Biological Survey, Washington, D.C.
Whoever tries to attract birds should also protect them from storms, from their natural enemies, and from meddlesome people. Birds will sometimes reject a good house because it is not properly mounted, or because the location is objectionable. The boy and I visited a park lately where about a hundred bird houses had been put up, and but a few were said to be occupied. These houses were so constructed that, by turning a cleat underneath, the floor could be pulled down and out. If occupied, opening them in this way might have disturbed the nest. We visited twenty-five of these houses. All except two were mounted so low that the boy could reach them, some with ease, and turn those cleats. Only the two which he could not reach were occupied.
Some people have recommended tin cans as nest boxes for small birds. I have tried the tin can, carefully painted and placed in the shade. But, even with these precautions, I would discourage its use. People are so apt to forget about placing it in the shade! I have seen birds’ nests in tin cans with little skeletons embedded in them, the birds having been smothered by the intense heat which metal will store.
Enough wooden boxes are discarded by grocers, druggists, and other merchants to stock the country every year with bird houses. If our fathers and mothers will encourage the making of these discards into bird houses, shelters, and feederies, it will mark a step forward in bird protection.
FOOD HOUSE, MADE OUT OF WASTE MATERIALS
Food houses should be protected so that other animals cannot mount and monopolize them, keeping the birds at bay. The red squirrel will do this unless the food tray is at least five feet above ground and the post well sheathed in tin.
My newest food house has the lid of a cheese box as tray and the top of a sugar barrel as roof. This flat surface is a handy place for a basin of water. In each of the four pillars supporting the roof is a hole, to be stuffed with suet, cheese, peanut butter, etc. My grocer saves the drippings from his peanut grinder for my birds, so there is no extravagance in giving them this dainty. Song sparrows and bluebirds like it as well as the woodpeckers. On the side of the tray I tack nesting material. So this food house, made out of waste materials, serves several uses. The boy liked it so well he patterned one after it for his birds.
Every autumn a lisping, whispered, dreamy bird song coming from some low elevation has puzzled me. The bird looked like the song sparrow, but this soft warble was so different from his spirited spring and summer songs that I could not believe my eyes. After repeated autumn entries in my notebook, “I see his heavy breastspot heave and swell, and his tail quiver as the song sparrow’s always does when he sings,” I was gratified to find my findings confirmed by another observer.[4] The singer was the song sparrow.