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Humming Bird Houses

Dennis J Gooding

Dennis J Gooding

Beta Tester
Beta Tester
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
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Location
Grants Pass, Oregon
My humming bird feeder is getting a lot of business and I thought I would make some rustic bird houses to hang in neighboring shrubs and trees. Does anyone know the appropriate interior sizes and entrance hole diameters to attract and protect the birds?
 
I don't think hummingbirds are cavity nesters, at least not the ones we have in N America. But the hummingbird houses would look good in your shrubs anyway. Here's some info on bird houses...
nestwatch.org

All About Birdhouses - NestWatch

How to Make a Safe, Successful Home for our Feathered Friends For many species of birds, there is a shortage of great places to nest. There may be birds that would love to call your habitat home, but they have a specific nesting requirement which needs to be met. Birdhouses can be placed in...
nestwatch.org nestwatch.org
 
Was gonna comment about hummingbirds not using "houses" - It would be a very rare thing for a hummingbird to nest in a crafted wooden "house". But I see others have already mentioned that :)

Unfortunately I also see a LOT of folks taking advantage of the ignorance of many amateur "birders" and selling "hummingbird houses" for that purpose (That, or they don't know any better themselves)

I have made quite a few - they sell well at craft shows SOLD AS CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS (at least by me) and anyone who asked ,I would explain to them that hummingbirds will prefer their own delicate (and very soft) nests and would not know what to do with a "hummingbird house"

I wrote down somewhere (I found it on a google search) the approximate hole sizes for different cavity nesting birds (bluebirds, wrens, etc) Would be easy enough to find that info (probably at Audubon society?) but as far as turned birdhouses, all I have done were only ever sold as decorations (with appropriate hangers) although I have a couple ideas for some larger blanks (if they ever finish drying) that I may try my hand at turning actual bird houses (though I might also do some staved builds)
 
We live on a small island in the upper left hand corner of Washington state - near the Canadian border in the Salish Sea. The hummers here are in full breeding mode. Mostly Anna's, Rufus's and Calypsos - the very tiny varieties. The only ones that winter over are the Anna's. They build very tiny nests - generally about 2" dia and about 3" high in the cedar trees by preference. They're very high up and pretty much impossible to see from the ground with the cedar branches drooping down for cover.
We did have an Anna mom decide to nest on our porch one winter, but they didn't make it through a particularly cold winter.
I really doubt they'd be interested in sheltering in a bird house, at least the ones we feed up here.
 
Dave Fritz said:
All we have is the ruby throated hummingbird and it builds it's nest in trees.
View attachment 44353
Oregon has numerous species. https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/hummingbirds You'd probably have to ID the species your dealing with and see if they nest in boxes.
Click to expand...
We also have the ruby hummer at our feeders and have noticed some nests like the one pictured.
My daughter sent me a link to a video about making houses which had an introduction supposedly showing hummers flying into the house but it is obvious that they did not actually go into the house as they just got close to the hole and disappeared.
 
The nest I pictured is just outside our house and the photo was taken from a second story window. This particular nest fledged two young. Note the nest is made of lichens and held together with spider webs. The eggs were the size of peas. Truly a remarkable gift of nature. We live on a remarkable planet.
 
I was requested by an old friend a few weeks back to make he and his wife a few hummingbird houses. I looked up how and saw that the birds do not nest in cavities. I told them that when they came to pick theirs up and they already knew that as fact. They were buying the decorations only hummingbird houses. I have made a few more to sell at craft shows and tell people they are for decoration. We'll see how they sell. Nothing wrong with making items that people want, are willing to pay for and they know what they are getting. Look at how many very beautiful bowls and other items people buy without the intention to use them other than decoration.
 
Yes that is what Hummers do, they build a nest in a fork or other safe place and use soft plant material, and keep it all together and held solid by using spider web thread, and then camouflage it with moss and lichen material.

On the right side of the Rockies we have only the Ruby throat Hummingbirds, they came to our feeder in S. Ontario and they do come also here in N.W. Ontario, when I was visiting our DIL parents on Vancouver Island I was able to make a picture of one of the Hummers that they had there, I'm not sure which species it is, they did have a couple different ones, but they are very feisty and aggressive defending their food sources and territories.

Ruby throat Humming bird.jpg
Vancouver ? humming bird.jpg
I have turned a lot of Birdhouse ornaments, and no two alike, they did sell as hotcakes when I still lived in London Ontario, sold a bunch here as well, but there are not many people living here, so that reduces the selling of them here.

I'll see I I can add one full page of some of the ones I did make.
Birdhouse ornaments.jpg
 
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