Scott’s Birdhouse Plan Page – Free Birdhouse Plan Information

Free Bird house designs, free woodworking plans, bird feeders, homemade, cedar, free, birdhouse, nest, barn owl nest, mourning dove nest, chickadee nest, woodpecker nest cavity, flicker nest, finch nest, cavity, plans, plan, wildlife, hole, cavity, wood, wooden, drill, designs, plans, free birdhouse plan, free woodworking designs, easy, fun, easy, help native animals, Free Birdhouse designs, wetland birdhouse plan, wetland birdhouse plans, wood duck house,

Must read first Birdhouse Plan Books Birdhouse guidelines Bird Habitat

Birdhouse and Bird Watching Books and Supplies:

from Amazon.com:

The Backyard Birdhouse Book – This is by far the best book I have seen on the subject. Detailed birdhouse plans designed to attract birds and not just be yard decorations. (shown on left)

Birdhouses & Feeders You Can Make – Highly Rated birdhouse plan book

Enchanting Woodland Birdhouses – Highly Rated – Decorative birdhouse plans (shown on right)

Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife – Birdhouse plans and other wildlife plans

65 Birdhouses and Bird Feeders – Birdhouse plan diagrams only, no instructions included, (low cost).

Birdfeeders, Shelters and Baths – Mainly bird feeder plans, also Roosting box plans,

Woodworking for Wildlife: Homes for birds and Mammals – Includes Wood Duck Birdhouse plans

Info on purchasing a custom-made Bat House ß Follow this link

Bat house plans

The Bat House Builder's Handbook – Bats can help control insects and they are fun to watch. Bat houses are a good way to help imperiled bat populations.

Hummingbird Feeder - Perky Pet Products 209 30-Ounce – Pictured to the left– This is my favorite model for hummingbirds

Hummingbird Gardens: Attracting Nature's Jewels...(book)

Hummingbird food directions – Boil 1 cup water, add 1/4 cup sugar, mix, cool, add to feeder. You can make any volume of this but the ratio should always be 4 water to 1 sugar.

Eastern Birds' Nests – identify birds eggs and nests east of the Mississippi.

Western Birds' Nests – identify birds eggs and nests west of the Mississippi.

Other stuff you might be interested in:

Paper Towels - 100% post-consumer recycled paper - Seventh Generation Brand

Toilet Paper - Made from 100% recycled paper - Seventh Generation Brand

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide

Before you build any birdhouse plan…

1. Keep your cats indoors. Cats kill and/or eat birds and stalk birdhouses!! Even your nice little declawed kitty will instinctively hunt and kill birds. If you like birds please keep your cats inside and (if it wasn’t obvious already) get your cats spayed or neutered to keep populations down. It doesn’t make sense to build a birdhouse or feed birds if you let your cat out to kill them. Tell your neighbors! Tell your relatives! Tell anyone who will listen! --- House Cats are bad for native wildlife!! If you don’t believe me check out these sites:

Cats Indoors, On the prowl, Cats and Wildlife, Scientific Study, U of Maine (1.2 MB pdf)

2. Prepare for the onslaught of introduced European starlings and house sparrows. These non-native birds compete with native birds by occupying birdhouses or other nesting sites and directly destroying nests and killing native bird species. If you are not willing to manage non-natives please do not build or erect a birdhouse plan with an entrance larger than 3/4 inch diameter. See below for control and trapping info.:

Sialis - House sparrow info Cornell birding - controlling introduced bird species

Free Birdhouse Plans

General Nest Plans and Information (please look here before asking me):

USGS: Perching birdhouse plans, Water foul birdhouse plans, woodpecker birdhouse plans, raptors: birdhouse plans and feeders

See the USGS birdhouse plan specs page too – Sizes for many birdhouse plans

Roanoke Wildlife Rescue: Many upland and wetland birdhouse plans and other nest designs

Specialty Nest Plans and Information:

Barn owl info and birdhouse plans: Barn owl info Page, Missouri DoC Plan, Wisconsin DNR

Barn Swallow nest plans and info: Artificial nest info, Swallow info – Thanks to Jackie

Blue Bird: Birdhouse Plans, USGS Bluebird Trail Info, Bluebird Reference Guide, Peterson Birdhouse Plan

House Finch Info (They may or may not use birdhouses - 1 1/4” hole): Cornell, Stanford

Mourning dove info and nest plans: Info and nest plans Info and nest plans (pdf)

Osprey Nest Plans: Diagram and instructions, Picture and Story, Picture and Story 2

Purple Martin Birdhouse Plans: USGS plan, Martin Links (dmoz)

House Sparrows and Starlings: You should not build birdhouses intended for house sparrows or starlings in North America. If you do get these species in your birdhouses remove them – They are an introduced species and are displacing native birds. Spread the word. For more info see this link: non-native control

Although not free The Backyard Birdhouse Book is an excellent resource for birdhouse plans and info for cavity nesting birds.

Looking for Bat house plans? See my bat house page.

A Few of My Favorite Birdhouse Designs:

Log house birdhouse (Alt)– rustic birdhouse made from a piece of log (see pic below - right)

Wren house 1 **– hanging diamond-shaped birdhouse (see pic below - middle)

Wren house 2 **– this birdhouse has a rectangle shaped entrance hole that wrens may like

Small-bird Birdhouse (Alt) – basic small-bird birdhouse plans (see pic below - left)

**Before you build a wren house you may want to read this: Great Wren Debate

Three of My Birdhouse Plans: (click on Image to view construction plans)

For personal use only. Not for redistribution or commercial use without permission.

Standard Bird House Wren house Chickadee house..

Looking for a particular birdhouse plan

If you’ve looked at all of the links above and still can’t find it.

E-mail me: bathabitat@gmail.com

General Birdhouse Guidelines:

1. Follow birdhouse hole sizes precisely to avoid unwanted birds

2. No perches on your birdhouses – cut perches off any house you buy – Perches attract unwanted birds

3. Evict unwanted birds like the introduced European starlings and sparrows from your birdhouses (see how)

4. Use screws where appropriate to improve longevity of your birdhouse (pilot holes prevent splitting).

5. Roughen the inside of the birdhouse below the entrance hole so young birds can get out

6. Pick birdhouse plans that are easy to clean, such as those with a hinged birdhouse door (or modify plans)

7. Clean out birdhouses in the winter to prevent the spread of disease (See #6).

8. Most birds will use birdhouses hung at 6 to 10 ft, but check your species’ needs

9. Painting birdhouses is optional - Many birds prefer unpainted birdhouses - Paint outside only if you do

10. Move and/or alter birdhouses that are not occupied after three seasons.

More helpful birdhouse guidelines at Roanoke Wildlife

Flicker Goldfinch House Finch…..

Photos by Ann Cook

Habitat for Non-cavity Nesting Birds:

Hummingbirds, quail, cardinals, and many other birds do not nest in man-made “birdhouses”. Some birds are ground nesters, others nest in the branches of tall trees, and still others nest in dense shrubbery, but not birdhouses. Here is a short list of things you can do to support non-birdhouse nesting birds as well as the birdhouse-using cavity nesters:

Plant or encourage a diverse array of native plants in your yard or on your property. Native plants provide nesting habitat, cover, and food for a variety of wildlife including cavity (birdhouse) and non-cavity nesting birds. Talk to your local nursery or pick up a native plant book to find out which species are native to your area.
Keep a portion of your yard somewhat unkempt: that well-mowed, heavily fertilized lawn does not help native wildlife. Removing every stick and stray blade of grass eliminates nesting materials that birds need. A dead tree may provide preferred nesting habitat for cavity nesters as well even if you have birdhouses.
Avoid using pesticides: they kill insects that are many birds’ food. Some insecticides can directly kill birds or their young.
Talk to your neighbors. A whole neighborhood of wildlife friendly habitat is better than just one lot.
Discourage non-native birds, like starlings and sparrows: (see how)
And again keep your cats indoors (see above): cats kill birds. Dead birds do not make nests.

Hummingbird Info – They don’t nest in birdhouses, but here are some items that might help them:

Hummingbird Gardens: Attracting Nature's Jewels...(book) – No birdhouse plans though

Hummingbirds of North America : The Photographic Guide – No birdhouse plans

The World of the Hummingbird (book) – No birdhouse plans

Hummingbird Feeder - Perky Pet Products 209 30-Ounce – Pictured to the left

Hummingbird Feeder - Schrodt Designs HBL-HPR Hummingbird Paradise Lantern Feeder, Red

Hummingbird food directions – Boil 1 cup water, add 1/4 cup sugar, mix, cool, add to feeder. You can make any volume of this but the ratio should always be 4 water to 1 sugar.

Controlling introduced birds – House sparrows and European Starlings:

Building and erecting birdhouses comes with the added task of keeping non-native birds out of your birdhouses. Simply building and erecting a birdhouse but not monitoring it could contribute to the problems that non-native birds create by actually increasing their populations. House sparrows and European starlings harass and kill native birds, raid nests, and steal nesting sites including birdhouses.

If you are not ready for the responsibility that comes with building birdhouses do not build birdhouses at all. If you mainly want birdhouses for decoration simply block the entrance hole from the inside with a piece of scrap wood painted black (to look nice) or make any entrance hole 3/4 of an inch or smaller (instead of what the plans suggest). This will keep all birds from nesting in the house, which means no cleaning and no trouble with providing nesting sites for non-native starlings and house sparrows.

However if you want to help native bird species you will have to keep introduced species at bay. At least passively and hopefully actively. These links should help:

http://www.purplemartins.com/Topics/starling-sparrow-wars.htm

http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/getting_started/controlexotics.html

http://www.sialis.org/hosp.htm

Traps and trapping info and plans:

Starling Tipping-Can "birdhouse" Trap more info – This one seems to be the best option for small to medium scale starling problems

V top Trap - http://www.martinsetc.com/id34.htm - The V-top or Z-top traps are for larger scale problems – traps many birds
plans for sale: http://www.actionintegration.com/cgi-bin/nic/getprod.cgi?STP

Z trap - http://www.purplemartins.com/Topics/Z-Trap/Z-Trap.htm

Repeating bait trap - http://www.purplemartin.org/inst/InstRBT.html - try this for house sparrows

Birdhouse and Bird Info Links:

Stanford Birding: Species info for the birds around Stanford (Western U.S.)

Birdhouse Cams: Nest box cams from Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Check out their archives too.

Bird Photos: More great bird photos from Ann Cook.

North American Bird Sounds: A great site to hear birdcalls!

Audubon Society: You know it as the major bird watching / wildlife advocacy society.

Bird info at About.com: Extensive information on birds and birding (a little cluttered with ads)

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Last Update 11/19/2006 SMH