From a tiny bachelor apartment to a highly sought after penthouse

| Christie

The story actually started 3 months ago, before we actually moved to the cottage country.

My desire to offer lodging to some new or old winged friends lingered in the back of my mind for several years already. Now, with our upcoming move, and with an imminent spring coming up, one of my first thoughts was to get a birdie home.

The visit of our godson, Tudor, was precisely on time, as he is a nature lover and his enthusiasm for plants and animals could only help with the painting of the little birdhouse I was purchasing.

I would have plainly painted it, probably brown. Instead, Tudor did a little research on the colours we can use. That’s how we actually found out what colours do birds like best, if not attracted to.

Birds tend to be attracted to flowers in colours similar with their plumage, especially yellow, green and blue. Since the house was small, it could only fit some of the very small birds that like to visit our neighborhood like sparrows, chickadees, house wrens, warblers or maybe goldfinches.

Scientists have discovered for several decades that birds can see colours that humans cannot. Humans’ retina to three cones can greatly limit the range of colours we can see, but birds have a fourth cone that pick up the ultraviolet light, which allows them to see different shades of colours. They are not attracted to the red bird feeder we got last year, for sure, so we stopped at the colours already mentioned, and generally agreed: yellow, green and blue.

Ready to hang it over, with a nice pattern on all sides, and two additional layers of clear varnish, the little real estate has found its place high up in a tree, ready to welcome its new inhabitants.

Although the open house was available anytime during the months of April, and May, only one pair of chickadees were seen popping in and out quickly, and just for a short visit. Perhaps the lack of furniture, or maybe the eastern views didn’t meet the requirements, but they left in a hurry.

Not little was my surprise, when one day, I started to see a high activity. Two house wrens, carrying small twigs were back and forth, in and out for few straight hours. They seemed to have forgotten to sing, to eat, or anything else. The small real estate was suddenly taken.

The little pair worked for hours, stretching their wings and bodies in all sorts of directions. Smaller or larger twigs, grass and other weeds were brought in, in a frenzy. A very interesting work to watch, and a huge entertainment for us, especially when they started bringing in bigger twigs.

You would think that bigger twigs would fill up the small house faster, right? But alas, the door is too small!

House wrens have the most effervescent voice. They often sing in pairs, and tend to jump from a branch to another quite often, well hidden by the trees foliage. They sometimes prefer the old bare stumps high up in the trees. They are the liveliest birds I could see, except the chickadees. A real delight to see their vivacity, and listen their melodious trills.

But don’t be fooled with their nice appearance, and their cute songs. It is said that wrens often pester other birds, and evict them from nest cavities destroying their nests, puncture their eggs, or peck their young to death. They have the perfect survival skills, the survival of their own species.

Fastidious birds are they are, the male wrens would build several ‘dummy’ nests, which females choose from, finishing them with a lining of moss, grass, leaves, or feathers.

Now, as I have dug deeper into their lives, the question arose.. is our real estate just a dummy nest, or a new home? ….. Time will say😊

33 thoughts on “From a tiny bachelor apartment to a highly sought after penthouse”

  2. Nesting birds are amazing and often humorous with their innovation and tenacity ! This year the wrens here have raised 3 broods , one brood had 6 chicks with mom and dad both working hard to feed them : )

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    1. For a couple of weeks, there was not much action around the house so I was a bit disappointed, but in the past couple of days, I’ve seen them in and out. I don’t dare to take a peek inside, waiting patiently for now! Thank you, xx

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  5. This is such a lovely post, Christie, so good that I had to keep reading chunks and showing photos and videos to Michaela as I read through it. I actually really didn’t know that colourful nest boxes were more attractive, I may have to quickly go and slap some colour on to our drab wooden homesteads! Lovely post.

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  8. How clever to work out what colours birds are attracted to and paint the pretty home for them! It clearly worked 🙂 I enjoyed seeing them try to get the big twigs through the small opening! I hope it proves to be a real nest, not a dummy. We recently had wood pigeons nesting in our photinia but their single offspring flew the nest about a week ago so it’s now sitting empty.

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    1. They offered us such a huge entertainment while building the nest🙂 It seems they like the territory, as they keep returning every year. Hopefully they will like the house, so we can keep it for them, for the next season as well.
      How cute about your pigeons, they took off quite soon, isn’t it?

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    1. I tried to create a little suspense with the title, not sure how successful LOL Yes, we are having a lot of fun with the little ones, and not only🙂
      Hope all is well with you, cheers, xx

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  12. This is a lovely article, Christie. I would adore having a garden/backyard and place bird feeders there as I do enjoy watching birdlife. I loved all the details you discovered about birds’ vision and how cleverly you used this information to create an alluring bird house. The story of the pair of wrens and ‘dummy nests’ is another wondrous nature discovery. I hope this turns out to be a real nest.

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    1. Yes, indeed, I am so glad it turned out to be a real nest! We have recently returned from a trip, and found out a high activity around the nest. To be honest, I believe there are babies already, as of past couple of days, but I need to take a chair and some time to observe them more thoroughly🙂

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  13. This is such a wonderful post, Christie 🙂 Thanks so much for helping to preserve these precise creatures while helping to keep their numbers up. Birds of all species could make use of cracks and crevices in nature, but what can be better than a purpose-built bird box / ready-made home, set up to be moved in for the nesting season?

    Being a bird landlord and managing a nest box is an exciting way to help your feathered neighbours as it is an instant home for any potential nesting birds, as well as it can help them survive colder months to roost in – so a birdhouse can be used twice a year. Thanks for sharing and I hope your summer is going well 🙂 Aiva xx

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