Bird Houses as Roosting Boxes

My son painted this birdhouse when he was 3 and 4, the red was easy, the yellow and green, we taped off with masking tape so he could keep in the lines. He gave it to his mother for Christmas. When I noticed the hole was enlarged I thought I would make the edges smoother and repaint the flower. After I finished, I hung it on our deck to prevent any further renovations. A couple days later I heard pecking on the deck and couldn’t see any birds, then I noticed the buoy house rocking. I backed off and watched the chips flying out of the hole. This was in spring and I thought maybe we were going to get a woodpecker nest right here.

When the bird looked out of the hole I was surprised to see it was a Hairy Woodpecker. This house is really quite small inside, more of a Chickadee size, so I was thinking Downy Woodpecker. As the work continued I expected to see her break through and leave a hole in the side, but I guess they know when to stop. All spring and summer she was in the house from dusk to dawn apparently not nesting anywhere else. If she did, dad spent the night on the eggs and not her.

I would feel bad if I forgot and used the front door and scared her off through the night, so I started moving it bit by bit down the deck so it wasn’t so close to the door. (and for our own benefit as well, it scares the daylights out of you to have a Hairy Woodpecker zoom past your head in the dark and squawk in your ear, I’m convinced this is a defense mechanism.....startle your enemy while you make your escape....I wonder if I could use the technique on certain customers....hmmmm) Now we can quietly come and go without making her fly off. She just pops up and looks out the hole until we leave.

It seems now that most of our bird houses are occupied in the night by woodpeckers. I haven’t found any other species coming out in the morning or being scared of through the night, but we have a least seven Downy and now one Hairy Woodpecker bedding down in our yard. I’ll wait until spring and put some fresh houses out for the Swallows.

written by Dwayne Biggar at The Bird Garden