How to Build a Bird House DIY – Great for Chickadees and Swallows
This is a very edited video on how I build my bird houses. It is based on a design called the “the Chalet” by www.realbirdhomes.com. You can look up their design there. I make mine from a single piece of 8′ x 6″ x 1″ Maine pine and using a 1-1 hole opening for small birds like Chickadees. I modify the design by using 10″ roof over hangs instead of 12″ since my houses are usually wall/tree/decorative mounted. This house is going on ebay and this is house number #54 I’ve made using this an other designs. Any questions please ask. The video was good at 20 minutes, making into 10 minutes forced a lot of removal of footage.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
with a cat after it lol
go to 9:21 because in the baskround to the right theres a bucket that say scoop away
@TheVicksta1 Thank you for the nice post.
Hello, this is a great video. I’ve never made anything(!) and I made this birdhouse in July, just by following your video. I’m about to make another one as a Christmas present. Thanks so much
@Turbo231 – I wish I’d known about that ‘double-entry’ hole back in 1996 when I built my beautiful purple martin condo – that my neighbors, and, even the local cops, stopped by and asked about while admiring! Without that double-entry feature, within a few years, that entire condo featured chewed and enlarged holes in which squirrels lived!?!?
I ended up doing what you did with the doubly-thick doorways!
Great video, my friend!
nice job.
@davidgrgic Probably…you can pick your bird by the side of the entry hole. Lots of info on the internet about that.
@Turbo231
Do you think this would work for House Sparrows as well?
@c1nicolei Yes…had a pair of indoor cats converted to outside cats…think Rusty even makes a Cameo near the end.
Very nice, I cannot wait to get started… I love how you roughed up the inner front instead of having to attach a screen!! Irony that there is a cat litter box in the back ground too. LOL.
@ustfu Doesn’t take fancy tools. A hand saw, drill, and hammer will do just fine Those fancy tools just make it faster and easier, but are certainly not required.
I want to make one, but I don’t have the fancy tools that you have
Thank you! Very clear instructions…You do go work! Going to have my husband make this house. Couldnt help notice the Cat in the background..he’s probally thinking” why are you building a nest box?”, what about building something for me?
Thanks
I couldn’t read your dimensions but still managed to throw one together that looks pretty good. Thanks.
Excellent video. Very clear instructions. Thanks!
@Turbo231 Alright thanks, glad your houses are doing well.
@logos2600 The birdhouses has been great. The pine does very well. Digging around, some people say that cedar isn’t good for baby birds, I personally don’t know but pine is cheap and very easy to work with. All of my houses are still in service, although they are no longer pretty as they weather differently, they are all quite functional. Have stained and painted quite a few decorative ones, sure the same could be done to one for in-use.
Nice video, just wondering how has this held up since you’ve put it up? I have built a birdhouse and other things for the outdoors and I’ve been using all cedar so far, but I’m considering changing to pine because its less expensive and easy to work with.
I built a big birdhouse in highschool with several different rooms in it, all with different sizes of holes just to see what types of birds would nest in it. A kestrel ended up nesting in the biggest hole and the rest were left vacant (for obvious reasons). I was pretty amazed to attract a bird of prey… I expected sparrows, chickadees etc.
@BDavisOutdoors You work in industry long enough, it’s a no brainer.
Wow a guy who actually uses safety glasses..
@heat1912 Thank you so much for the nice note.
Glad you liked it.
Well, I used this video to make my version of the house with a mini camera inside the roof cavity looking down into the house. I erected the house into the crown of a tree outisde my house in November. Good news a small blue tit has taken up residence and sleeps through the night every night from dusk till dawn. He hasn’t put any bedding inside even though we have had heavy snow and temp has been -4 which is pretty cold for south UK. Looking fwd to the spring. Thanks for the design, gr8 vid.
Nice video. The front overhang on the roof is especially nice. Please use a light colored paint on outside if boxes will be in open sun. See my channel for details. I have done testing on how colors and heat shields affect interior box temperatures. At ambient temperature of only 87°F my dark colored test box was 108°F inside which is enough to kill baby birds.
Yes…this house was built in the fall…most houses are used in the spring/summer, but thise design has been very successful with the birds.