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Invite the Neighbors In
With Some Colorado Bird Houses
If you're an avid bird watcher, you may have toyed with the idea of putting up some Colorado bird houses. We did.
We actually put three houses up in our Minnesota yard in 2007, but they're all three ones that easily work for Colorado birds, too. Now remember, not many species of Colorado birds actually use cavities to nest in. (All those pictured on this page do, though.) And of those that do, not all will be coaxed into using a bird house instead of a tree or other hole they excavated themselves (or some previous bird did). But the ones that adapt to houses are fun to have around. So give it a try.
If you're not handy with building your own, you can often buy kits to build bird houses from, or even ready-made bird houses. Just don't plan on those cute decorative ones housing birds properly. Go to a reputable birding store to get the real thing. The birds will thank you.
We made our bird houses ourselves. One was a kit, already cut and two were from plans. Our plans came out of a birdhouse book called The Backyard Birdhouse Book, by Rene and Christyna M. Laubach. It's probably still available at Amazon.com, which is where I ordered my copy.Not only does it have plans for a variety of houses, but it gives detailed information on the different birds' life cycles, how many eggs they lay, how to keep pest birds and predators out and all sorts of other great information.
If you're serious about attracting birds to nest in your yard with Colorado bird houses, please be responsible about it and get a reference book of some sort to guide you. It's not for those unwilling to take a little time to monitor what's happening inside the boxes. Or cleaning the boxes out at the end of the nesting season. (Watch out for mice to try to take over during the winter. Not good!)
Just because you put up boxes, they're not always successful. As I said, we put three different kinds of houses up in our Minnesota yard, and not one got used. Except for the European Starlings trying to make use of the box we put up for the pair of Hooded Mergansers that spent four weeks on our pond. We had to keep chasing the Starlings out.
But it was delightful to watch the wide variety of birds checking out these new homes and trying to decide if they were up to snuff. Or would suit their lady friends. Even if they don't get used, they attract birds you might not otherwise see to your yard.So invite the neighbors to move in with some Colorado bird houses in your yard! It'll definitely improve the neighborhood.
This handsome guy below is an American Kestrel who was wounded badly enough he can no longer hunt for himself. He lives at a local nature center as an education bird. My daughter and I go to care for him once a week. If you put up boxes for something like this kestrel, be prepared for them trying to eat songbirds at the bird feeders, though!
Want to read more about birding in the area? Click any of the links below to go to our other bird pages:
Colorado State Bird
Wild Birds of Colorado
Bird Watching in Colorado
Colorado Bird Watching Clubs
Colorado Bird Watching 2
Colorado Upland Bird
Birds of Colorado 2
Return to Colorado Birds main page from the Colorado Bird Houses page.
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