Wooden Birdhouses – What to Look for in a Wood Bird House

Probably the most popular type of bird house is a wooden bird house. There are a number of types of wood birdhouses, here's a look at some things to keep in mind when shopping for one, like the type of wood, size, paints. One advantage of a wooden birdhouse is that you can personalize painted bird houses to almost any design.

Wooden Birdhouses – What Makes a Good Wooden Bird House?
By J Ruppel

Wood is a great material to use for a birdhouse. After all, nature has chosen wood as the base material for natural housing for birds, so why not do the same for your backyard?

You can build your own wooden birdhouse, or you can find several types of prebuilt houses. Let's take a look at some critical aspects of building or buying a birdhouse made from wood.

Here are some wood varieties often used for wooden birdhouse:

Pine – Pine is cheap and light weight, but it is probably the least durable of the wood choices. It can be a good choice for a painted birdhouse, as that will slow the aging process for the house.

Cedar – Cedar gives a rustic look and can be used unfinished or with a clear protective weatherproofing finish. Lightweight, has a pleasant smell to humans, and is resistant to insect invasion (after all, cedar is used to keep moths out of your closet.) If left unfinished, it will weather to a grey finish but will still last a long time.

Cypress – This is one of the more common materials used for birdhouses. It's often used with other materials like copper and other decorative materials used for the roof top.

Mahogany – This is probably the favorite material for use in wooden birdhouses, especially smaller ones. This is a denser wood that weathers very well, and is one of the most beautiful commonly used for bird house construction, but is the most expensive as well.

Other factors to consider in the construction of wooden bird houses.

Paints – If you decide not to leave a wooden birdhouse in its natural finish and paint it, be sure to use a paint without a lead base, similar to the care you would take with an infants furniture. Also even if you decide to keep the natural finish but want to weatherproof it, be sure to choose a non toxic material that will weather well. Varnish doesn't weather very well, but polyurethane (more than one coat) will often do well in outdoor settings.

Size – You need to consider the type of birds you want to attract to the birdhouse. key factors include the size of the entrance hole to the bird house. Smaller holes are used for birds like wrens. The size of the house is smaller as well.

To attract larger birds like blue jays you will need not only a larger house, but with a larger house you will need to consider how it is mounted. A pole mounting scheme is often used for very large bird houses, but even without a pole care needs to be taken to make sure the bird house will stand the elements.