🚀 go-pugleaf

This works for Woodpeckers too, fill the box tight with wood chips and they will
take out what they don't want..


Andrew Longtin
New Hope, Minnesota
ALongtin *at* worldnet *dot* att *dot* net

No SPAM needed here..
Must fix anti-SPAM address to reply..


Don Wilkins wrote in message <380bdf45.8186333@news.wcta.net>...
|On Thu, 14 Oct 1999 05:38:36 GMT, lynda_mccormick@hotmail.com wrote:
|
|>Maybe it's the shape?  Or location?  I was thinking that they might
|>like a box placed on a tree stump instead of a pole.  Any ideas?
|
|I have had success with wb nuthatches as follows:
|
|l. Conventional bluebird house on metal pole.
|
|2. Conventional bluebird but I take the thin end of a wooden shingle
|and close off the entrance hole by stapling the piece of shingle over
|the hole on the inside of the box. The hole is clearly visible but the
|only thing that is going to get inside is a bird that is capable of
|pecking out the soft cedar.
|
|This one is a low maintenance box because the shingle keeps the
|riff-raff out and you can tell at a glance if there is any action.
|
|3. Build bluebird box where the front is a piece of slab wood with
|bark attached.
|
|4. I have not done this (yet) but any of the above but stuff the box
|with coarse sawdust so they need to clean out a cavity.
|
|I still can't get the rb nuthatches to use a box.
|
|

On Thu, 14 Oct 1999 05:38:36 GMT, lynda_mccormick@hotmail.com wrote:

>Maybe it's the shape?  Or location?  I was thinking that they might
>like a box placed on a tree stump instead of a pole.  Any ideas?

I have had success with wb nuthatches as follows:

l. Conventional bluebird house on metal pole.

2. Conventional bluebird but I take the thin end of a wooden shingle
and close off the entrance hole by stapling the piece of shingle over
the hole on the inside of the box. The hole is clearly visible but the
only thing that is going to get inside is a bird that is capable of
pecking out the soft cedar.

This one is a low maintenance box because the shingle keeps the
riff-raff out and you can tell at a glance if there is any action.

3. Build bluebird box where the front is a piece of slab wood with
bark attached.

4. I have not done this (yet) but any of the above but stuff the box
with coarse sawdust so they need to clean out a cavity.

I still can't get the rb nuthatches to use a box.

>Question: how readily do nuthatches accept birdhouses, and
>what kind of comercially-made birdhouse (if any) is best suited for them?

Any bird house with a 1-1/2" opening and a deeper chamber (8" or more) sould be
fine, however, just when you think you have the perfect box for them, they
choose something else: a wood duck box!  Yes, I said wood duck.  The past three
years a pair of white-breasted nuthatches has nested in a wood duck box just 20
feet from my watching window.  Their nesting behavior is quite interesting.
The male will do a "cross-hatch" routine with his bill full of insects all over
the entire surface of the box, presumeably to "mark" his territory.  Next, he
wedges bits of food in the nubby bark of the tree: suet and black-oil sunflower
seeds.  All the while, the female hangs out of the entrance hole seemingly
encouraging him on (oh, shades of allelomorphism).  I often wonder if this
caching behavior teaches the juvenile upon fledging how to forage for food in
the bark of trees?
Louise Dawson

That's facinating.  We have a pair of white breasted Nuthatches in our
backyard and although we haven't been able to figure out why they
never use the same feeder as the Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers,
we'd like to put up a box for them.  Wood Duck eh?  Hummm......

Lynda











On 14 Oct 1999 00:36:54 GMT, jjcardinal@aol.com (JJCardinal) wrote:

>>Question: how readily do nuthatches accept birdhouses, and
>>what kind of comercially-made birdhouse (if any) is best suited for them?
>
>Any bird house with a 1-1/2" opening and a deeper chamber (8" or more) sould be
>fine, however, just when you think you have the perfect box for them, they
>choose something else: a wood duck box!  Yes, I said wood duck.  The past three
>years a pair of white-breasted nuthatches has nested in a wood duck box just 20
>feet from my watching window.  Their nesting behavior is quite interesting.
>The male will do a "cross-hatch" routine with his bill full of insects all over
>the entire surface of the box, presumeably to "mark" his territory.  Next, he
>wedges bits of food in the nubby bark of the tree: suet and black-oil sunflower
>seeds.  All the while, the female hangs out of the entrance hole seemingly
>encouraging him on (oh, shades of allelomorphism).  I often wonder if this
>caching behavior teaches the juvenile upon fledging how to forage for food in
>the bark of trees?
>Louise Dawson

In article <38054944.2336326@news.videotron.net>, lynda_mccormick@hotmail.com wrote:
>That's facinating.  We have a pair of white breasted Nuthatches in our
>backyard and although we haven't been able to figure out why they
>never use the same feeder as the Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers,
>we'd like to put up a box for them.  Wood Duck eh?  Hummm......
>
>Lynda

The Wood Duck box experience is interesting.  Sometimes we can't predict where
these little guys will nest.  The problem here is with the big hole (4 inch for
the WD?) surely a squirrel would get in.

The nuthatches have always avoided the carefully crafted homes we've made for
them, instead nesting in holes in the knotty pine siding.

Go Figure!

..Dave
http://www.spruce.net/birds

Maybe it's the shape?  Or location?  I was thinking that they might
like a box placed on a tree stump instead of a pole.  Any ideas?

Lynda








On Thu, 14 Oct 1999 04:38:46 GMT, nospam_k0kq@yahoo.com (Dave) wrote:

>In article <38054944.2336326@news.videotron.net>, lynda_mccormick@hotmail.com wrote:
>>That's facinating.  We have a pair of white breasted Nuthatches in our
>>backyard and although we haven't been able to figure out why they
>>never use the same feeder as the Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers,
>>we'd like to put up a box for them.  Wood Duck eh?  Hummm......
>>
>>Lynda
>
>The Wood Duck box experience is interesting.  Sometimes we can't predict where
>these little guys will nest.  The problem here is with the big hole (4 inch for
>the WD?) surely a squirrel would get in.
>
>The nuthatches have always avoided the carefully crafted homes we've made for
>them, instead nesting in holes in the knotty pine siding.
>
>Go Figure!
>
>..Dave
>http://www.spruce.net/birds