How dark should the bird house be?

How dark should the nesting areas be? This is a subject I've always been curious about.

Some people would say not too dark, birds need some light to go about their business during the day. Dark enough while you can still see some outlines of the columns, beams, walls or whatever.

Many "consultants" publicly claims light levels should be less than 1 lux; while some say less than 2 lux. Recently I learned that 10 lux is OK too!

So when you ask different people you get different answers. Well what is correct? May be there is no "one answer" - unfortunately we can't ask the birds! May be it is not such a crucial factor.

To begin with, how bright is 2 lux or 10 lux? So I finally decided to get a lightmeter. It is "good to have" and not a "must have" I think.

At least now I have an instrument to make measurements & obsevations to form my own opinion.

Bird nest harvesting tool

While visiting one of my friend's farm last weekend, I was shown this custom made harvesting tool made of stainless steel. It is a very nice tool.

Attached to a telescopic pole, nests can be harvested from the floor level.




















The 2-wire cavity collects the nest after removal from the nesting plank; similar to picking mangoes!




















Neat isn't it?

Keeping owls out

One way to keep owls away is to electrify the entrance preventing them to stand & inspect at entrance hole prior to entering.

This is the set-up at my friend's bird houses. The steel wires are electrified through an isolation transformer. Small PVC pipes provides support and stand-off from the concrete wall.

Use of fake nests

Use of fake nests is a proven technique. Recently I used it to encourage to birds to populate "vacant" areas in one of my bird house. In this case it is a floor with few nests.

I tried both fake plastic nests and Styrofoam pads.



















Of course the first signs are birds droppings. When new dropping increases all the time, its a good sign.















Soon some visible marking of bird nest added to it followed by eggs. In this instance, the preference of the fake nest over the foam pad.


































Shown hatched to chicks.















The two chicks of the 2 eggs nest.















This is the single egg nest.















Not all are populated yet, but the results are encouraging.

I might have scared some off during the frequent checks - so the lesson of don't over do it.

Cleaning Bird Nests - Part 3

Recently I assembled a cleaning kit using off-the-shelve parts from a department store. So anyone can practically do the same.

Shown below is a water jug holding a wire mesh sieve at mid level where the bird nest is placed. A small aquarium pump (hidden from view) pumps water up till it overflows continually into the filter-cup (one I collected from iced coffee stall).

Both are seated in a larger plastic container. The amount of water is added till the flow rate is stabilized and overflow directed via the tappered end of the jug.




















Well, I've tried out this new arrangement and quite happy with it. There are still some stubborn hairs trapped with some parts of the nest. It is quite easy to remove them after rising. At least I no longer labor over picking fine hairs from now on!

Using your car stereo for bird calls

I often like to do bird calls as I travel around; just to sample the birds feeding in the area.

This is one convenient way to do it - I always keep a horn tweeter and a pair of wired crocodile clips handy. Remove the plastic cover on the door tweeter and connects across it in parallel.

Simply play bird call CD on the car stereo and orientate the tweeter in the direction you like. It is even better to mount the tweeter on a small camera tripod.



















So there is no need to carry a purpose-build test kit.

I even keep all doors open to let the sound out from other tweeters/speakers - have fun watching the birds coming by!