Artificial bird nests. Artificial nesting boxes for birds in the garden. Correct placement of nesting boxes

March is just around the corner. It’s high time to take care of nesting sites for the bird population in the area. What birds do we want to see in our garden?

The great tit and blue tit are real gardener's assistants, one of the most useful birds in forestry and park management. If you regularly fed the tits in winter, then in the spring they will not forget the way to your garden. But no matter how hospitable the feeder is, tits will not stay in the garden or park if there is no hollow or house suitable for building a nest.

Most often, people make nesting houses for starlings - birdhouses (sparrows also willingly populate them). Undoubtedly, the starling deserves to have a house built for him. One starling brood can eat about 1000 cockchafers and their larvae in 5 days, not counting a huge number of caterpillars and slugs. Observations by ornithologists say that the starling most often hunts not in the garden near the house, but in the nearest forest or field, while the tit works only in the area where its nest is located. So - choose. Maybe we should help the small birds first? Such as blue tit, garden redstart, pied flycatcher, white wagtail. These birds usually settle in hollows, and few people remember them in the spring, which is a pity. My opinion: we need to attract as many small birds as possible into gardens, parks, squares and shelterbelts, and leave villages and the outskirts of forest parks to starlings. It is best to hang one birdhouse for every five houses for small birds. This measure will keep the starling in our gardens and yards, but will reduce its numbers. There is another, very original, method of keeping the number of starlings within reasonable limits. The fact is that in a spacious standard house a pair of starlings raises three to six chicks, and in a cramped birdhouse with a bottom area of ​​12x12 centimeters (as in a natural hollow) - two or three.

The material for nesting houses can be any dry board with a thickness of at least 1.5 centimeters (2-2.5 centimeters is best), as well as planks, slabs, a whole log or a log with a hollow. Thin boards and plywood are unsuitable: they are short-lived and warp quickly. You can make a nest out of a log, but it has no advantages compared to a house, and it is much more difficult to make.

The boards can be planed on the outside of the house, but they cannot be processed on the inside: it is very difficult for chicks (and even adult birds) to get out on a smooth surface. If the boards turn out to be smooth, then before assembling the house on its front wall - from the inside, below the notch - you need to make horizontal notches with a chisel or knife. There is no need to make any thresholds outside under the entrance; the birds get along just fine without them. It’s good if there is a branch near the treehouse: tits and flycatchers like to sit on the sidelines and look around before flying into the nest. The taphole is drilled with a brace or gouged with a narrow chisel. If you don't have anything to cut a round hole with, let it be square. To do this, you need to saw off the upper corner of the front wall. The titmouse differs from the birdhouse primarily in the diameter of the entrance. To inspect the house before the birds arrive and clean it from the remains of last year’s nest, the roof is made removable, strengthened so that neither the wind nor the crow can knock it down. The simplest fastening option is to pull the lid to the house with wire; a more complex one is to use spikes provided in the design of the side walls and roof. A flat roof with a slight slope back is more efficient; a gable roof will begin to leak faster.

When assembling the house, first a plank is nailed to the back wall, with which the nest box is attached to a tree or pole. The side walls are nailed to the bottom, then the front and finally the back with a strip. To fasten the walls to the bottom, it is better to use screws rather than nails. We must try to make the house firmly built, without cracks. If any have formed, they are caulked with tow or coated with clay.

Houses begin to be hung as early as February, as some sedentary and nomadic birds (sparrows, tits, nuthatches) look for nesting places very early. In the central zone of the European part of Russia, the latest date for hanging is the end of March. Houses for flycatchers can be hung until the end of April. The best time for hanging titmouses is autumn: by spring the nesting box will darken and become part of the tree.

The bird house should be modest and inconspicuous, hanging vertically or with a slight tilt forward. Birdhouses hung backwards, as a rule, are not occupied.

Sparrows and starlings are the least “picky” about the appearance of artificial nests. Other birds do not like to live in bright or freshly planed houses. Before hanging, they are painted with a strong solution of potassium permanganate or lightly coated with earth. The pied flycatcher often ignores a house that has darkened over the years. But if you whiten it inside with chalk, the situation will change. The great tit, on the contrary, prefers twilight in the nest. Birdhouses can be painted on the outside with oil paint.

In noisy, crowded places - parks, squares - nesting places for birds should be placed higher: birdhouses - 5-6, titmouse - 4 meters from the ground. In a calm garden environment, the titmouse can hang at a height of 2 meters.

Unlike the starling, the great tit is very picky in choosing a nesting site. It is better to make a house for her from thick boards and also without cracks. It is advisable to cover the titmouse in the crown of a tree, but the branches should not cover the entrance. Neither tits, nor flycatchers, nor redstarts like open, windy, sunny places. The wagtail is distinguished by the fact that it does not know how to cling to vertical surfaces with its paws - therefore it never settles in birdhouses. But if you make a special house and hang it under the eaves of an uninhabited wooden structure, a pair of wagtails will willingly build a nest there.

There are different ways to attach nest boxes to trees. The simplest option is this. From the outside, a 6-7 cm nail is driven into the side walls of the house exactly in the middle of the cut of the back wall, retreating from above by 1/3 of the entire length of the wall. The nail is driven from the bottom up. The end of a hemp rope or soft wire (aluminum wire must be insulated) is wound around one of the nails, thrown over the roof, slightly pulled and brought under the second nail. Then they wrap a rope around a trunk or thick branch of a tree and secure the end to a nail. Old electrical cords are good for this type of fastening.

To hang the house, you need a light 4-meter ladder. It's better to work with two or three people. You can make a loop at the ends of the rope in advance and put them on nails when hanging. The rope on the tree is placed obliquely to the trunk shaft, and not across it.

Where should the entrance to the house look? In a park where winds and rain are restrained by trees, it is not necessary to strictly observe the direction of the entrance. Before hanging a nesting box in an open place, you need to determine exactly which side in your area most often rains and winds come from in the summer.

A properly made house can serve birds for several years.

Bird houses
( Dimensions are in centimeters)

Last year I worked as a technology teacher at school; unfortunately, my passion for project activities was not in demand. The state does a lot to create the image of a Trudovik - an alcoholic, a slacker, or an illiterate person who only knows the technology of making stools. That's not what my post is about.

International Bird Day will come soon, namely on April 1st. On this day, many nature lovers prepare houses for birds, which, together with their children, they often hang in parks, on their own plots and in forests. This post is dedicated to how to make a bird house.

Artificial nesting box for birds

We often call all artificial nesting boxes birdhouses, but there is still only a grain of truth in this. An artificial nest box is an artificial structure designed to house nests, but starlings are not the only ones who make beds in them for their offspring. [Rice. 1; Rice. 2; Rice. 3] Artificial nesting sites are divided into open and closed. [Rice. 4] Closed nesting boxes are made in the form of wooden boxes (houses) and are usually intended for birds nesting in hollows. [Rice. 5]

Rice. 4 Open and closed artificial nesting sites

Rice. 6 Starling on an artificial nest

Rice. 9 Various forms of artificial nests

Artificial nesting boxes are often installed to monitor nesting and support populations of more or less rare bird species in conditions of a lack of natural nesting places, and to instill a love of nature and work in children. In the USSR, there was a practice of involving schoolchildren in making birdhouses during labor lessons. Every year, since 1924, on April 1, Bird Day is celebrated in our country; hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren participate in the manufacture and hanging of bird houses. It is believed that the number of bird houses in Russia increases every year by at least half a million. [Rice. 10]

Rice. 10 Tits at the titmouse

Birdhouses and titmouses - modifications and placement

The most popular artificial nesting sites for small birds are birdhouses and titmouses. They are traditionally made in the form of wooden houses with a round or rectangular entrance. [Rice. 11] A variant of the birdhouse or titmouse is also the nest box [Fig. 12] – a nesting box in the form of a piece of tree trunk with a hollowed out core, closed at the top and bottom. A nest box can also be made from a log of wood by splitting it into four parts. [Rice. 13]

To make titmouses and birdhouses, you will need boards with a width of 10 to 20 cm. For each “house” they make a bottom and a lid sleeve, a lid, front and back walls, and side walls. A tap hole is drilled in the front wall. To attach a structure to a tree, a piece of board is attached to the back wall, which is tied to the tree with twine or nailed to a wall or fence. [Rice. 14]

It is best to make a titmouse or birdhouse from boards (timber) 2–2.5 cm thick (but not less than 1.5 cm); plywood is not suitable for this. Firstly, it is very fragile and begins to delaminate from bad weather, and secondly, plywood perfectly transmits sounds. Most birds do not like noise, and therefore plywood houses are very reluctant to inhabit. In addition, houses made of plywood can do a disservice to birds, since when cold weather sets in, the temperature in them drops sharply.

The boards must be well dried; they can be planed, but only from the outside. If you plan both sides, it will be very difficult for the bird to get out along the smooth inner wall.

It is best to make the taphole round, placing it from the lid at a distance approximately equal to the diameter of the taphole. It can also be square; for this, the upper corner in the form of a square is cut off on the front wall of the drawer.

The lid of titmouses and birdhouses must be removable. In order for the nesting box to serve for a long time, it must be cleaned, otherwise it will be filled with old bird nests right up to the entrance.

The significant difference between a birdhouse and a titmouse is only in size. The size of the nests is determined by three indicators: bottom area, depth (i.e., the distance from the bottom to the entrance) and the size of the entrance itself. The design of titmouses, as well as birdhouses, can be very diverse in shape, design and size. In central Russia there are several species of tits: the great tit, blue tit, black tit, tufted tit, brown-headed tit, long-tailed tit, gray-headed tit, etc., therefore, the sizes of two types of tits are taken as a basis: the great tit [Fig. 15] and the lesser tit [Fig. 16]. A comparative analysis of the sizes of the most popular artificial nests is given in the table.

Comparative analysis of the main dimensional indicators of the most popular artificial nests

	internal bottom size	distance from taphole to bottom	taphole diameter
Sk vorechnik	14 – 15 cm.	15 – 20 cm.	4.5 – 5 cm.
Great titmouse	12 – 14 cm.	15 – 20 cm.	3 – 3.5 cm.
Lesser titmouse		10 – 15 cm.

Considering that the most typical species of tits in the green zone of the city of Naryan-Mar is the brown-headed tit [Fig. 17] and gray-headed tit [Fig. 18], when making a bird house, we will use standard dimensions for the small titmouse as dimensions.

Additional Information

The brown-headed chickadee (Parus montanus), or chickadee, is a small, gray, inconspicuous bird. Puffy is named for the way it fluffs up its plumage greatly in cold weather.The head is black with a brown tint on top; the cap extends far back, including the occipital region. This cap is black, so the name “brown-headed chickadee” rather indicates the similarity of this bird with the black-headed chickadee (the latter has a darker cap). The back, shoulders, loin and rump are gray with a brownish tint. The sides of the head and neck are white, there is a black spot on the throat. The ventral side is off-white, with a pale rufous tint on the sides and undertail. The flight feathers and tail feathers are grayish-brown.

A medium-sized, large-headed, rather long-tailed tit, length 12-14 cm, weight 9-14 g, wingspan 16-22 cm.

The brown-headed tit is widespread in the lowland and mountain forests of the northern hemisphere: in North America, Europe (except for its southern regions), in the northern parts of Asia, in the Caucasus, Sakhalin and the Japanese Islands. A sedentary, partially nomadic bird, flying during migrations outside the breeding range both in the north and in the south.

Compared to the great tits and blue tits, even the blue tits, the puffy tit gravitates less towards anthropogenic landscapes and appears less often in populated areas. However, it willingly visits feeders in forest parks and on the outskirts of cities, is very careless, and quickly gets used to taking food from hands.

Maximum known age is 9 years. Pairs usually breed chicks in a row for only 2-3 years, sometimes up to five years. A common species throughout most of its range, in the taiga it dominates in numbers over other tits. And in general, chickadees of various species in some places (for example, in the Leningrad, Moscow regions) are one of the most (if not the most) numerous birds, especially if we talk about the winter forest.

Chickadees stay in pairs all the time, apparently formed in the fall. In March, birds begin searching for nesting sites. They nest in coniferous or mixed forests, choosing areas of spruce or pine plantations. Unlike other species of tits, the brown-headed tit can itself hollow out a hollow in trees with soft wood that easily rots in natural conditions (aspen, alder, birch). The hollow hollowed out by a chickadee differs from the hollows of woodpeckers in the irregular shape of the entrance hole and small internal dimensions: the diameter of the widest (lower) part of the hollow is 5.5-9 cm, the height is about 18 cm, the diameter of the entrance is 2.5-3 cm. The couple spends from 4-5 to 10-12 days.

Powderwings nest in hollows, which they almost always hollow out themselves. Only in case of failure do they occupy ready-made shelters, most often using the hollows of tufted tits, the lesser spotted woodpecker, or their own old hollows. Powdertails rarely settle in artificial nesting sites. Several nests are known to have been found in very unusual places - under the roots of trees, in old thrush nests, in a crevice-shaped half-hollow, in the trunk of a spruce tree at the place of work of the blackbird. These examples indicate that despite specialization (hollowing out hollows), puffy birds still retain elements of behavior characteristic of the entire group of tits. At first, the couple lays several hollows in different places and hollows them out one by one, but then concentrates on hollowing one.

The construction of the nest is very intensive: in an hour there are 12-14 flights to the hollow with building material. However, every 1-2 hours, the birds usually stop building for several hours.

In the time free from building a nest and when the female is laying eggs, the pair spends most of its time preparing food. On average, it takes about 3 days to build the nest itself.

The material from which the nest is made varies greatly. More often, the nest is made of thin soaked bast fibers, small wood chips, thin dry roots and stems, dried moss plants, and the hair of various animals (only thin, short and soft hairs). Less commonly, the nest is made of scales from pine trunks and birch bark films with a small admixture of dried plants and wood chips; sometimes eggs are laid directly at the bottom of the hollow, on which in this case a lot of wood dust and wood chips are poured.

Having finished the inner lining of the hollow, the female waits 1-5 days and then lays 6-11 (usually 7-9) white eggs with reddish-brown spots. Only the female incubates the eggs for 13-15 days. All this time the male feeds the female. Like most other tits, the chicks do not hatch simultaneously, but usually over the course of 2 days. On the first day after the chicks hatch, the female almost never flies out of the hollow: she warms the chicks and the remaining eggs; The male carries the food. On the second day, the female is already more involved in feeding the chicks, and on the third day she begins to regularly feed the chicks along with the male. Subsequently, the female warms the chicks during the day only when it is cold. The female spends the night in the nest with the chicks.

The chicks usually stay in the nest for 19 days. The male and the female bring food to the nest up to 250-300 times a day. Butterfly caterpillars, spiders and sawfly larvae play the main role in the chick feeding of the chickweed. Brown-headed chickadees feed their chicks somewhat less frequently than other tits. But at one time they can bring up to 43 food items.

After the chicks fly out of the nest (in the middle part of the range this happens at the end of May), adults feed them for 7-10 days. Then the birds stay in a family flock, usually consisting of 2 old and 7-9 young birds. In July, such family flocks unite with other species of tits, kinglets and some other birds into large flocks wandering through the forest.

Young brown-headed chickadees leave their home area soon after acquiring independence and, after a short journey, settle in other areas, joining the pairs of adult birds living here. Here they spend the winter in one flock.

In autumn and winter, chickadees can be found in all types of forests; with the onset of cold weather, they also appear in city parks, gardens, and in bushes along the banks of reservoirs. However, they still gravitate towards coniferous trees. Unlike all other species of tits, chickadees quite often gouge bark and thin branches, extracting, like woodpeckers, hidden insects.

GREAT TIT (Parus major) [Fig. 20], or highway. Common, widespread bird. Currently, in the North-West, the great tit is noticeably increasing its numbers.

The dorsal side is yellowish-green, the ventral side is yellow with a wide black stripe along the chest and belly. The upper side of the head, sides of the neck, throat and adjacent part of the crop are shiny black with a bluish steel tint, the sides of the head are white. The wing is grayish-blue with a light transverse stripe. The tail is blackish with a bluish coating.

The great tit is one of the largest representatives of the family: its body length is 130-165 mm, weight is about 20 g.

The tit is a sedentary bird, and only partially wanders. In spring, it returns to its nesting sites in the second half of February - early March. Tits settle in a wide variety of areas of the tree stand, but they all prefer to nest in deciduous forests. Nests are made in the hollows of woodpeckers, less often in rotten wood of a tree in the place of a fallen knot, behind loose bark, in the cracks of wooden buildings, in old squirrel nests, between thick twigs and branches that form the skeleton of an old nest of birds of prey, as well as in other closed places, usually at a height of 2-6 m from the ground. Near human habitation, the great tit can build nests in the most unexpected places. There are known cases of these birds nesting in cast iron railings, in water pump pipes, in street lighting poles, in hollow metal pipes of fences, in mailboxes, behind the skins of building walls, inside the muzzle of an artillery gun, and even in the skull of a camel! And of course, bolshaki willingly settle in nests made by humans.

Both birds of the pair build a nest within 4-7 days. In rainy springs, the construction of individual nests sometimes takes 10-12 days. Tits sometimes drag up to 200 g of building material into large hollows, trying to fill the entire internal space of the bottom with it. A nest is usually built from thin twigs, roots, dry grass stems, moss, lichens, as well as plant fluff, feathers, scraps of wool, cocoons and webs of spiders and insects. In urban conditions, nest materials often contain wool, cotton wool, threads, blades of grass, and feathers. The tray is lined with horsehair, soft hair from various animals and soft feathers.

During the breeding season there are usually two clutches: the first, consisting of 9-15 eggs, in April; the second, from 7-11 eggs, in June. Usually, for the second clutch, the birds move to another hollow located close to the first one. But it happens that the grown chicks have not yet flown out, and the tit corrects the nest with green moss and lays eggs of the second clutch directly under the chicks. Tit eggs are white, slightly shiny with a large number of reddish-brown spots scattered on their surface. Only the female incubates them for 13-14 days. The male only occasionally brings her food.

The hatched chicks are fed exclusively by the male for the first 3-5 days of life, while the female warms the chicks during this time. The chicks remain in the nest for 19-21 days; the parents feed them, making about 400 flights with food to the nest per day. The first day or two after hatching, the chicks are given the juice of insects crushed by an adult bird; chicks aged 2-5 days – small spiders and caterpillars. Then the chicks’ food becomes more varied: their parents bring them, in addition to spiders and caterpillars, also butterflies, flies, and small beetles. Only before leaving the nest do the chicks begin to receive coarser food, similar to that consumed by adult birds. As mineral food, parents give the chicks soil, egg shells, and shells of terrestrial mollusks.

After the young birds of the first brood leave the nest, the old birds feed them for another 7-10 days. However, one male finishes feeding, while the female is busy incubating the second clutch. Then the chicks begin to wander in a family flock near the places where they hatched, and the male returns to the female to take part in feeding the second brood.

At the end of summer, family flocks of great tits unite with families of other species of tits and kinglets, individual individuals of pikas, nuthatches and some other birds. In such flocks at the beginning of winter there are usually 30-50 individuals, which roam widely wherever there are trees and bushes. With snow falling, most of the tits migrate to the south, and the remaining individuals for the winter move to the outskirts of populated areas.

When hanging bird houses, you must follow the following rules:

1. pay attention that the tree branches do not touch the front wall, otherwise the birds’ enemies (cats, etc.) will enter the nesting area;

2. when attaching the nesting box to a tree, use natural devices: branches, growths, etc., it is possible to attach artificial houses by hanging them on thick branches using metal hooks, otherwise the houses are tied to the trunks with rope or wire; [Rice. 19]

3. The nesting site is installed at a height of 2 meters above the ground;

4. the distance between the houses should not be less than 20-30 meters, ideally 50-80 meters from each other;

5. hang 5-10 birdhouses and 6-15 titmice per hectare; in cities, villages and in places where trees are located near vegetable gardens and fields, you can hang up to 20-30 artificial nesting boxes per hectare.

It is better to build houses in the fall - over the winter the birds get used to artificial nesting boxes, and in the spring they settle in them.

Designer birdhouses

Relatively recently, interesting birdhouses began to appear on trees in our country; they differ from the traditional birdhouses familiar from childhood in their exclusive appearance, color, shape, and sometimes size. Each project is distinguished by an interesting design and individual approach.

Often, designer masterpieces are intended primarily for decorating summer cottages, parks, and are very reminiscent of the rich houses of their owners, and sometimes they are a small embodiment of a dream. Many of these birdhouses or titmouses are made in the style of Russian wooden architecture, many resemble castles and towers, and some look like objects that cannot be called birdhouses.

For example, Canadian carpenter John Looser furnished the entire lawn in front of his house in Toronto with bird nests [Fig. 22]. The 46-year-old carpenter used to build houses for people. He had to switch to feathered clients after an accident. The illness forced him to quit his job in construction. The bird carpenter says that a new interesting activity helped him to distract himself and, immersed in work, at least for a while to forget about the terrible pain.

Rice. 22 Designer Birdhouses by John Loser

Bright roofs, high turrets, palace outbuildings, funny outbuildings - you name it. The master's works reflect various trends in European architecture. [Rice. 23] So these bird houses can easily be exhibited in museums, but it is better, of course, to be used for their intended purpose. For example, the largest building by John Loser can accommodate 103 pairs of birds - an entire bird dormitory! [Rice. 24]

Mainly sparrows and swallows live in such houses. But the author of bird palaces claims that he can design a comfortable building for feathered guests of any kind.

Gradually, the bird town of unusual mansions grew, and not only the neighbors were surprised by the strange buildings on John’s lawn. Soon, almost the whole world learned about the creations of the skilled carpenter. In any case, there was no end to orders: both Europeans and Australians liked the beautiful birdhouses, and the cost of a bird’s mansion ranges from 200 to 2,500 dollars.

WORK PROCEDURE AND TECHNOLOGICAL DOCUMENTATION

To make one titmouse in class, you need to prepare the following materials in advance:

1. from cutting boards 25 mm thick, 150 mm wide. and a length of at least 700 mm. we cut blanks for the roof, as well as the front and rear walls, plan the outer layers of the walls and the bottom layer of the roof on a jointer;

2. from cutting boards 25 mm thick, 100 mm wide. and a length of at least 650 mm. we cut blanks for the side walls, bottom and sleeve of the roof of the titmouse;

3. to speed up work in class, the teacher should use a thickness planer to mark in advance the lines for the location of the mounting holes on the front and back walls, as well as on the perch and cover sleeve (if the students have enough experience, they can do this on their own);

4. To fasten the parts you will need 6 screws 41 mm long, and 12 screws 55 mm long.

Tools for the lesson you will need:

1. pencil, ruler, carpenter’s square (for each student);

2. hammer, center punch;

3. drilling machine, twist drill for wood Ø2, pen drill Ø30 mm, personal protective equipment when working on a drilling machine (for efficient work, it is advisable to use two configured drilling machines);

4. Phillips screwdriver, for ease of work, if students have sufficient experience, it is advisable to use a screwdriver, otherwise students tighten the screws with a screwdriver, and the teacher tightens them using a screwdriver himself.

As visual material you should use:

1. safety posters when performing carpentry work, working on a drilling machine, rules of conduct in training workshops (located constantly in the workshops);

2. drawings of titmouse parts and assembly drawing (fixed on a stand or wall in a place accessible to everyone during the lesson);

3. a sample of the manufactured product serving as a standard for students.

Marking of workpieces, punching the centers of holes and drilling are carried out by students in any sequence convenient for them, depending on experience, occupancy of the machines, etc. The assembly of titmouses is done in pairs of students (helping each other or together with the teacher) in the following sequence:

1. the cover and sleeve are assembled in accordance with the drawing;

2. the perch is attached using self-tapping screws to the front wall of the titmouse from the inside;

3. lay out the bottom on a flat surface, around which the walls of the titmouse are installed, and put a lid with a sleeve on top;

4. one of the students holds the structure with his hands, trying to grasp and press all the walls together, the second, with his left hand, rests on the cover of the product, controls the correct placement of the parts and screws the screws into the mounting holes using a screwdriver or screwdriver (after fastening one of the walls unfold the titmouse and repeat the procedure with the opposite wall);

5. level and secure the bottom of the titmouse with self-tapping screws.

After assembly, the teacher cuts the sides of the product together with the edges of the front and back walls on a jointer and attaches a narrow strip to the back wall, with the help of which the titmouse is attached to the tree, which in turn will give the product a finished “marketable” appearance.

If, for some reason, planed boards are used to make the titmouse, then on the inside of the front wall it is necessary to make notches with a chisel or other carpentry tool, along which it will be easier for the birds, and especially small chicks, to get out.

To paint the bird house, use only natural, water-based, odorless paints.

If the birdhouse is located close to the house, a television camera with infrared illumination can be installed in it, on the inside of the lid, which will allow you to observe the life of your feathered neighbors. [Rice. 25]

Rice. 25 Using a TV camera in a birdhouse

The first week of April traditionally “belongs” to the birds. At this time, foresters, gardeners, schoolchildren and students hang out artificial dwellings prepared for birds - birdhouses and titmouses.

The first “Bird Day” was held in our country in 1925 on the initiative of the Biological Station for Young Naturalists named after. K.A. Timiryazev in Sokolniki (Moscow). The purpose of this action was not only the “biological protection” of green spaces from pests. An equally important task even then was considered to be the revitalization of city parks and squares by attracting a variety of songbirds there. At the same time, educational goals were also pursued.

Typically, Bird Day was held during the first week of April and was accompanied by school conferences and competitions, the preparation of exhibitions and the design of wall newspapers on ornithological topics. The tradition of holding “Bird Day” has survived to this day and forms a significant part of the environmental and educational work carried out by schools. In addition, various institutions interested in nature conservation and the ecological well-being of our habitat are currently participating in the Bird Day.

The use of artificial nesting boxes to attract birds has a long history. According to research by G.P. Dementyev, the first birdhouses in Russia appeared several centuries ago. Specimens of birdhouses made by Vologda peasants at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries have been preserved. (Fig. 1).

In the middle and second half of the 20th century.

Hanging bird houses in order to attract birds and increase their numbers, primarily in areas of mass breeding of pests and in human settlements, has become particularly widespread.

To make artificial nests, you can use various materials: cement, clay, cuttings of asbestos pipes, etc. However, the traditional and best materials remain boards, planks and tree trunks with a drilled core.

The thickness of the boards for making bird houses should be at least 1.5, and preferably 2.5 cm. The outside of the boards should be planed, but their inner surface should be left unplaned and rough. The general plan for sawing and assembling artificial nests is shown in Fig. 2 and 3. Rice. 2. Making a titmouse with an internal size of 10 x 10 cm from planks of different widths (top view): A – “ordinary” pinning; b – with an angular cut tap hole; V – from planks of the same width; G

– nailing with folding
Rice. 3. Making a birdhouse.
Legend:
A – external length and width of the house; a – length and width of the bottom;

B – external height of the house; b – distance from the bottom to the lid;

B – width and D – length of the cover; t – thickness of material (boards); l – tap hole diameter

The lid of the birdhouse should be made inclined in one direction, which will ensure the drainage of rainwater. It is not worth making a gable roof - firstly, it complicates the manufacture of the birdhouse itself, and secondly, it is much more difficult to make a gable roof removable. Meanwhile, the ability to remove the lid and remove nesting debris once a year is a necessary condition for regularly populating the birdhouse.

In front of the entrance, you should not stuff any slats or “porchs,” much less thin poles. However, it is useful to nail a small branch on the side of the birdhouse, rising above the roof, for landing birds.

According to established tradition, in nesting boxes intended for starlings, the entrance is made round and drilled at the very top of the front wall, and in titmouses it is square and sawed in the upper right or left corner.

It should be noted that with all the variety of artificial nesting sites, the two main and most common types remain precisely these two types: the “titmouse” and the larger one, the “birdhouse”. Of course, not only starlings and tits settle in them, but also other hollow nesters, which these houses suit in size.

However, it is possible to build houses of even larger or, conversely, smaller sizes. In table Table 1 shows the sizes of artificial nesting boxes recommended for different species of birds (according to K.N. Blagoslonov).

A special type of artificial nesting site is nesting boxes. They can be with an attached bottom or hollowed out. In places where foresters cut down hollow trees, hollow sections of suitable height are cut from fallen trunks, with a taphole drilled into the side in the upper part. Then an attached bottom is nailed from below, and a removable lid is made from above.

It is much more difficult to make a hollow from a split log, hollowing out the outline of the hollow from its two halves and then tying them with wire.

A simplified technology for making nest boxes was proposed by V. Strokov. He recommends cutting out the core of a block of wood split into four parts, and then putting the remaining parts back together and fastening them with wire and nails. The internal dimensions of the nests are indicated in the table. 2.

Some general recommendations for hanging artificial nest boxes. In the forest, it is better to place them along clearings, roads or paths, but at some distance. It must be remembered that starlings prefer to settle on the edges of the forest and therefore an exception must be made for them. It is advisable to hang birdhouses tilted forward - this will make it easier for the chicks to climb out. It is better to place nesting areas on the main tree trunks and in those areas of the crown where there are no branches. In crowded places, nesting boxes should be hung higher: in a secluded place, tits can nest at a height of 3 m from the ground, while in open places, houses for them should be located at a height of 4–6 m. However, a titmouse located above 8 m, even in a city park will be inhabited only by sparrows and pied flycatchers.

Nests for goldeneyes are hung near ponds on tall trees, nests for jackdaws and owls, kestrels, owls - high in trees or on brick buildings.

Depending on the biotope and the nature of the area, a certain density and ratio of different types of nesting sites must be observed.

So, in a garden, titmouses should make up 3/4 of the total number of nesting sites, and in a village with sparse trees near fields and vegetable gardens, on the edge, on the contrary, birdhouses should predominate.

In rural villages, on the outskirts of small towns, on individual trees near fields and vegetable gardens at a density of 2–5 titmice per hectare and a hanging height of 4–8 m, mainly tree and house sparrows will nest. In large city parks without undergrowth, with a density of 3–5 titmice per 1 ha and a hanging height of 5–8 m, pied flycatchers, redstarts, field sparrows and house sparrows will nest. And finally, on city boulevards and squares with a density of 2–3 titmouse per 1 hectare and a hanging height of 5–8 m, mainly house sparrows will settle, although small numbers can also be expected to populate the houses with pied flycatchers, redstarts and tree sparrows .

When holding Bird Day during the spring school holidays, approximately from the end of March to the beginning of April, it is necessary to organize the hanging of nesting boxes at this time. The latest dates for hanging are allowed until mid-April, but for birdhouses - until the end of March. By hanging nest boxes in May, you can still attract late-arriving pied flycatchers. Nesting boxes hung in the fall attract tits, which spend the night in them in winter and remain for nesting in the spring.

And one more important rule. Schools that organize the hanging of birdhouses in large numbers must keep regular records of the birds settling in them - taking into account the size of the house, the location and height of the hanging, and the nature of the surrounding area. In addition to the fact that this is a good basis for extracurricular work and environmental education, the material collected from year to year will be of great value for the school museum and biology classroom, and in the end, ornithologists will also be able to use it.

For nesting, birds need a variety of “apartments” - those species that naturally live in hollows will like birdhouses, some birds make nests on tree branches at different heights, sparrows can nest under the roof, finding a small hole at the junction of the gable and the roof.

You can buy ready-made bird houses or make them yourself, the main thing is to install them so that they provide protection from rain and sun, as well as from cats, squirrels and birds of prey. It is advisable to clean birdhouses every fall. Shrubs can also provide reliable shelter for birds; they will also provide them with food in the winter in the form of berries and insects that hibernate under fallen dry leaves.

Types artificial nests
An artificial bird nest is an artificial structure designed to house bird nests.

Artificial nesting sites are divided into open and closed. Closed nest boxes are made in the form of wooden houses (boxes) and are usually intended for birds nesting in hollows. The work of installing closed nest boxes is sometimes called nest boxing in the professional jargon of ornithologists.

Closed nesting sites
The most popular among hobbyists are birdhouses and titmouses - artificial nesting boxes for small birds, mainly nesting in hollows. They are traditionally made in the form of wooden houses with a round or rectangular entrance. Birdhouses and titmice are often made by amateurs and are located in urban areas. During the Soviet era, there was a practice of involving schoolchildren in making birdhouses during labor lessons.

A variant of a birdhouse or titmouse is also a nesting box - a nesting box in the form of a piece of tree trunk with a hollowed out core, closed at the top and bottom with a bird hole in the wall.

Which nesting boxes are better - made of boards, nest boxes or other materials? In the more northern regions of Russia, the best indicator of nest occupancy was obtained for drilled nest boxes. Indeed, small hollow nesters prefer nesting boxes to plank titmouses, apparently precisely in the northern regions of the country. Obviously, the reason for this is that the temperature regime of the nest box is more favorable than that of the plank titmouse. But already in the middle zone of the country, wooden titmouses, as a rule, are better populated than nest boxes.

Cement nests are unsuitable in cold climates due to their thermal conductivity. However, in recent years, in Germany and other countries of Western Europe, cement-sawdust nests have been used that do not have this drawback. They are practically eternal, not very heavy, have no cracks, and birds willingly populate them.

All kinds of pottery nests do not retain heat, and at the slightest cold snap the broods in them die. Nests made from flower pots, old iron cans, sections of drain pipes, boxes, boxes (wooden, plywood, cardboard) are completely unsuitable for bird nesting. Although birds sometimes settle in them, a significant part of their clutches and chicks die in the event of a cold snap. These nest boxes, being fragile, are often destroyed and fall along with the nest.

Open nesting sites
Open nesting boxes are platforms installed on trees or poles in conditions where there is a shortage of nesting trees and are intended for birds that nest in open nests (mainly raptors).

BASIC ELEMENTS OF ARTIFICIAL HOUSES

An artificial house for birds, an artificial nest (hereinafter simply an artificial house) is a structure created by a person in which a bird arranges (builds) its nest. All artificial houses have a number of basic elements, regardless of the type of house.

* Letok - a hole for birds to enter the house.
* The front wall is the wall in which there is a taphole.
* The back wall is the wall to which the pole is attached, or the wall that leans against the tree.
* Side walls are all other vertical walls.
* The chamber is the internal volume of an artificial house.
* A pole is a plank used to attach an artificial house to a tree, etc.
* A fragment is an element of an artificial house made of wood.
* The suspension unit is the mechanical fastening of the elements of an artificial house.
* The connecting element is called: nails, screws, etc.
* A reinforcement unit is a set of elements used at a given location of a seam to increase strength. There may be: metal tapes, wire and other elements.
* A seam is the plane of contact between two load-bearing elements.
* Porch refers to various devices at the entrance.
* Load-bearing elements are the front, rear, side walls, bottom, and suspension unit.
* A stamp is a small metal or plastic plate indicating the year of manufacture, manufacturer, place of manufacture, individual number.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIAL HOUSES

The main materials for making artificial houses are boards and slabs. Plywood, chipboard, and fiberboard are not suitable due to the presence of an adhesive binder in them. When making an artificial house, a number of basic requirements must be met.

* Material thickness is at least 15 millimeters.
* Compliance with the basic dimensions given in the tables.
* Do not process the planes of the boards, especially internal surfaces.
* Seal the cracks in the seams with PVA sawdust and small shavings. To prevent the seal from spreading on top, the seams are treated with waterproof agents: plasticine, green paint.
* Ensure reliable connection of load-bearing elements.
* The pole has two pairs of holes for fastening with wire and nails.
* Has a removable roof with lining.

* In the places of fastening points, pre-drill a hole 1 mm smaller than the diameter of the connecting element.
* Use sharp screws as a connecting element.
* Birds populate houses with round entrances better than houses with rectangular entrances.
* Sometimes the entrances of titmouses are hollowed out by great spotted woodpeckers (in winter, to use the titmouse for sleeping; in summer, to get chicks of small birds out of the nest). To protect against woodpeckers, hammer 8-10 small nails with caps around the entrance or stuff a piece of tin with a hole cut in the middle for the entrance on the outside of the entrance (the diameter of the hole is slightly larger than the diameter of the entrance in the titmouse).
* When designing an artificial house for a bird not listed in the table, it is necessary to take into account: the bottom area should ensure the location of the nest in the house (the size of the internal part is calculated from the dimensions of the nest with a small allowance), birds are more willing to populate the house when the entrance matches its size and other features bird nesting.

CLASSIFICATION OF ARTIFICIAL HOUSES

1. Type: Standard artificial houses.
1. Subtype: Birdhouses.
2. Subtype: Titmouse.
2. Type: Multi-family artificial houses.
1. Subtype: Multi-storey.
2. Subtype: Multi-section.
3. Subtype: Mixed.
3. Type: Experimental artificial houses.
1. Subtype: With changed basic parameters.
2. Subtype: With modified suspension system.
3. Subtype: With a modified form.
4. Subtype: Using additional devices.
5. Subtype: Multi-family.
6. Subtype: For a new inhabitant.
7. Subtype: Mixed.
4. Type: Artificial houses with artistic decoration.
1. Subtype: Standard.
2. Subtype: Multi-family.
3. Subtype: Special.

The feather type includes artificial houses designed for starlings, tits, goldeneyes, owls, rollers, hoopoes, sparrows, redstarts, pied flycatchers, blue tits, wrens, nuthatches, chickadees, and grenadiers. It looks like a house. Character traits:

* has four walls that are parallel in pairs - back, front and two sides;
* intended for occupancy by one family;
* in the fastening there is a pole.

Birdhouses and titmouses have no structural differences, but differ in their size and the diameter of the entrance. Let us conventionally assume that birdhouses include houses with an internal bottom area of ​​more than 144 cm2, and titmouses 144 cm2 or less.

The second type includes artificial houses intended for settlement by a colony of birds. They are mainly intended for swifts, swallows, sparrows, etc. Characteristic feature: several chambers for nesting. Subtypes have a clear distinction.

The third type includes artificial houses in which various new elements have been introduced. An example of such elements can be: houses for birds not described in the table; fastening points, etc. It is advisable to fill out the accompanying sheet of the house and new elements according to the sample. Subtypes have a clear distinction. It is allowed to use various new elements with a separate description of each.

The fourth type includes artificial houses that have different artistic designs, namely: painting, carving decoration, etc. Since the main dimensions do not change, the subtypes are clearly distinguished.

DESCRIPTION OF ARTIFICIAL HOUSES

Type I Standard artificial houses.

This type includes artificial houses intended for settlement by starlings and tits (birdhouses, titmice). They are the main type of artificial bird houses. They are not labor-intensive to manufacture, do not require high-quality wood or complex mechanical or manual processing. Convenient to transport and hang.

Both subtypes have the same basic design. The main differences are in the inhabitant, and as a result, in size. The name indicates for which inhabitants these artificial houses are mainly intended. But they can be inhabited not only by starlings and tits, but also by other birds of similar size and nesting in artificial nesting boxes. In this regard, it is difficult to draw a specific line between birdhouses and titmouses.

MAIN OPTIONS
In the manufacture of both subtypes, the main options are related to the fastening unit and the roof.
There are two types of fastening: with a double-sided pole (Fig. 1) and a one-sided pole (Fig. 2).
Fastening with a double-sided pole provides a more secure attachment to trees, walls, etc. It is easier to work with when hanging artificial houses.
Fastening with a one-sided pole is used for fastening artificial houses on poles, to increase the height of the artificial houses. When using this subtype of fastening, it is necessary to pay special attention to attaching the pole to the artificial house.
Roofs are mainly used in three types: flat (Fig. 3), inclined (Fig. 4), gable (Fig. 5).
The flat roof is simple and easy to manufacture and allows for cleaning of the house, which is extremely necessary after three to four years of its operation. Provides reliable protection of the taphole from precipitation. To attach the roof to the house, a roof lining is used, which fits quite tightly into the house. The roof is not attached to the house with nails.
The sloped roof is used for variety. More labor-intensive to manufacture. Does not reliably cover the entrance.
A gable roof provides better protection for the house from precipitation. During manufacturing, a metal overlay is required at the junction of the roof halves. When making a removable roof, the lining is attached to both halves.

MANUFACTURING

Having determined the type of artificial house that you are going to make, you begin marking.

The chamber must be of standard sizes and is taken from the table in accordance with the type of bird for which the nesting box is being built. When making variation houses, the chamber dimensions remain standard, plus additional allowances are added to them.

Example: choosing an artificial house with a sloping roof for a tit.
Front wall: 14+2 cm.
Back wall: 14 cm.
Side walls: 14+2 cm.
Roof: 240/(10+4) = H/C (142+22).

In the manufacture of standard artificial houses, there are many different methods associated with certain skills, available tools and materials. Let us present the basic manufacturing algorithm and analyze one of the methods.

Algorithm for making a standard artificial house.

1. Preparatory stage.
1. Choosing the type of standard artificial house.
2. Selection of materials for a standard artificial house.
3. Calculation of fragments of a standard artificial house (length, width).
4. Marking fragments of a standard artificial house.
2. Processing of parts of a standard artificial house.
3. Assembling a standard artificial house.

From my practice, I can recommend the following manufacturing method.
1.
1. We make a standard artificial house with a double-sided perch and a flat roof for a tit.
2. The material is 2 cm thick boards.
3. Bottom, roof lining 10x10 cm; side walls 20x10 cm; front and back walls 20x14 cm; roof 20x16 cm; taphole diameter 3.2 cm; the height of the center of the tap hole is 14 cm; pole 40x4x2 cm.
4. Marking is carried out on 4 boards. It is advisable to choose smooth boards to facilitate marking and processing. On the first board the bottom, roof lining, and side walls are marked. The front and back walls are marked on the second board, the roof is marked on the third board, and the pole is marked on the fourth board. To save materials, choose boards 5-10 mm wider than the width of the fragments. An allowance of 5-10 mm is left between the fragments for processing.
2. The boards are sawn into fragments according to the markings. By grinding the side edges and ends, they are brought to the desired size. A tap hole and holes for nails are drilled in the front wall.
3. Assembly is carried out in the following order: the pole is attached to the rear wall, the left and right walls are mounted to the rear wall, the front wall is mounted to the left and right walls, the bottom is adjusted and mounted, the lining is adjusted to the roof and mounted to the roof. If there are cracks, they are sealed with sawdust on PVA and covered with plasticine on top or painted over with oil-based, water-resistant green paints. If necessary, reinforce the seams. A stamp is made and attached to the side wall.

II type. Multi-family artificial houses.

Multi-family artificial houses are designed for birds that prefer to nest together (swallows). They are quite labor-intensive to manufacture and require careful processing. Special conditions for transportation are required. When hanging, experienced teams and at least two people for hanging are required.

Subtype Multi-storey.
It is a modified standard house. Simply put, it can be thought of as several birdhouses stacked on top of each other. Usually intended for two bird families.

In manufacturing it differs in the fastening of the intermediate bottom before fastening the front wall. Otherwise, the manufacturing process is similar to the manufacturing process of a standard house.
Subtype Multisection.
It is a modified standard house. Simply put, it can be thought of as several birdhouses connected to each other by side or back walls. The number of families is determined by the type of birds and the place of hanging.

In the manufacture of multi-section houses, the main load-bearing element is the bottom. The outer walls are common to most cells. When making them, it is advisable to use one board. Mounting points can be of two types: pendants on a wire (like a chandelier), or fastening with poles (1-2 or more, depending on the size of the house).

Head of the school forestry "Viking" - S. V. Sukhoruchenkov
Head of the forestry department - I. Tikhomirov
Smolensk region