birdnote q&a: nest boxes 101, or which birdhouse?

Before we get started, the BirdNote backstory: In 2002, the then-executive director of Seattle Audubon heard a short public-radio show called StarDate. “We could do that with birds,” she thought. In 2005 the idea became a two-minute daily public-radio show. I recently asked BirdNote to help answer the recent questions you’d asked me.

Parts of Ellen’s answers below are in 2-minute audio clips to stream (all in the green links–or you can read the transcripts at those links if you prefer):

Q. Though we think of a basket- or cup-shaped twiggy thing as a nest, different birds see different spaces as the ideal “nest.” Tell us about the range of choices.

A. Birds raise their families in all kinds of different places–from a rock cliff or the ledge of a skyscraper, to a simple indentation on a beach, a woven bag (made by orioles, bushtits, and others), a cup nest, a gourd, an old shoe (those pesky wrens!), a hole in a tree, and more.

Probably the fiercest competition is for a cavity, a simple hole in a tree. The migratory birds that return to their territories first beat the others to that valuable commodity. More on that fascinating topic is here.

But there’s a way that we can help. Nestboxes! Build them. Buy them. Make them out of wood or old logs or even tin cans. Check out this clever use by the Hendricksons of Leavenworth, Washington–recycled coffee cans that delighted their