Alfa awus036h driver for windows xp sp3. Birders who know how to clean a bird house are taking steps to protect their backyard bird families from pests and disease while making their bird houses even more attractive for new nesting birds. Like cleaning bird feeders, cleaning bird houses is essential for good backyard bird health and safety.
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Why Clean Bird Houses
Just like a dirty, damaged bird feeder, a dirty bird house is less attractive to backyard birds. Dirty bird houses can also harbor rodents, insects, feather mites, fungus and bacteria that can spread disease to nesting birds and vulnerable hatchlings. Cleaning a bird house minimizes these hazards and makes the home more attractive to nesting birds. A clean bird house encourages reuse with either the same bird family or additional birds looking for suitable nesting sites at different times of summer, which can bring even more bird families to the backyard.
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When to Clean
Ideally, a bird house should be cleaned after the nesting brood has completely fledged and no longer returns to the nest. For many bird species, a single cleaning after the end of the breeding season is sufficient. In temperate regions where birds may raise multiple broods, however, the bird house can be cleaned between each new family to encourage more nesting. If you aren't sure whether the house is occupied or not, tap gently on the sides or roof and listen for responsive scufflings or cheeps, or peek inside the house carefully through the roof or moveable side to check for nestlings. If the birds are still present, wait at least another week before checking again to give them plenty of time to vacate the home.
How to Clean a Bird House
To thoroughly and safely clean a bird house…
- Open the bird house or partially disassemble it if necessary for proper cleaning. Bird houses with swinging sides, hinged roofs or removable fronts are the easiest to clean quickly and thoroughly.
- Remove all old nesting material and scrape out any feces or clumped matter. This material should be disposed of in a plastic bag to prevent spreading any parasites it might harbor. Old nesting material could also be composted if desired.
- Scrub the house thoroughly with a weak bleach solution (one part chlorine bleach to nine parts warm water). Be sure to scrub all corners, the entrance hole and drainage and ventilation holes to remove all debris and contamination.
- Rinse the house well in clean water for several minutes to remove all traces of bleach or other chemicals so there will be no remaining harsh chemicals or fumes to affect birds.
- Dry the house thoroughly in full sun for at least several hours. This will break down any remaining chlorine and ensure there are no moist crevices for mold or mildew to grow.
- Inspect the house for loose hinges, protruding nails or screws, prominent splinters and other hazards that can injure adult or hatchling birds. Fix any issues to keep the house safe.
- Check that all ventilation and drainage holes are unobstructed. If needed, drill additional holes to provide extra ventilation or drainage to improve the house.
- Reassemble the house securely and check that all screws, hinges and joints are tight. If the house converts to a winter bird roost box, assemble it in that configuration after the breeding season ends so birds can use it for safe shelter.
- Store delicate gourds or clay bird houses for winter so they will last longer, or return wooden bird houses to their hooks or posts so they can be used as roost boxes for cold winter nights.
More Bird House Cleaning Tips
To ensure that your bird houses are as clean and safe as possible for your nesting or roosting backyard birds…
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- Buy bird houses with movable or hinged panels that are easier to clean without weakening the structure of the house.
- Leave clean bird houses up for winter roosting and clean them again in early spring so they are ready for breeding birds.
- Also clean the post or hook where the bird house is positioned to remove any lingering pests or bacteria from the area.
By cleaning a bird house properly, backyard birders provide a safe, happy home for their backyard birds. Clean houses will attract more nesting birds, and generation after generation of healthy birds can be raised in suitable bird houses.
It can be a wonderful experience to monitor a birds nest in a backyard birdhouse or secluded tree at a favorite spring and summer birding hotspot, but what birds are making which nests? Nest identification can be tricky, but with practice, every birder can learn the subtle clues that distinguish different nests and make each nest just as distinct as the species that build it.
Identifying Nest Occupants
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The easiest way to identify a bird’s nest is to identify the birds that build and use it. Since those birds are typically adult birds in their breeding plumage, their field marks are useful for proper and confident identification. In many species, however, more camouflaged females do much of the nesting work and can be harder to identify. When birds are actively incubating eggs or feeding chicks it can be easy to get good views of the parents. It is best, however, to use a spotting scope and keep a significant distance from the nest so as not to stress the birds—if the adults feel continually threatened, they may abandon their eggs or chicks.
Once the eggs have hatched, the parent birds will be very active feeding their chicks and may present good views for proper identification, and the chicks themselves can provide great identification clues. First, determining whether the chicks are altricial or precocial can narrow down the identification significantly, and other clues such as size and coloration can be useful. Many chicks are heavily camouflaged for protection from nest predators, however, and they may not always be in a good viewing position to be easily identified.
Identifying Bird Nests
If the adult birds or chicks cannot be identified or if a nest is found without any birds in evidence, it is still possible to identify the nest itself. Consider the following characteristics when identifying bird nests: Boot camp assistant windows support software slow computers.
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- Location: Where a nest is located gives a clue for the identity of its occupants. Is the nest in a cavity such as a birdhouse or hollow tree, or is it on a cliff, in a low shrub, directly on the ground or high in a tree? Some birds, such as wrens, are also well known for nesting in unusual locations, such as inside a piece of clothing on a clothesline or in a hanging basket of flowers on a porch.
- Size: The size of a nest is a good clue for the size of the birds that use it. Larger birds generally have larger nests. Some small birds that regularly have large broods of 5 to 6 eggs or more may also build larger than expected nests to accommodate the space needs of their growing hatchlings.
- Shape: Birds build different nest shapes, from simple shallow scrapes to cups to elaborate hanging pouches or cave-like structures. In addition to the overall shape of the nest, consider how wide or deep it is and where the entry point is for birds traveling back and forth—on the side, top or even the bottom.
- Materials: Birds use a wide variety of nesting materials, but most species prefer certain materials to construct their nest. A nest composed mainly of grasses and lined with feathers will be made by a different species than a nest that may be the same size and shape but is built of twigs and moss. Sticks, mud, yarn, pebbles, trash, snakeskin, spider silk, lichen, rootlets, and fur are other common nesting materials.
- Construction: Exactly how a nest is constructed can be an indicator of the bird that built it. Some birds build loose, haphazard nests, while others have tightly constructed architectural wonders. Examine how the nest is attached to a tree or bush and note whether it is decorated with lichen, moss, bits of leaves or other materials to serve as camouflage.
- Eggs: If the nest contains eggs (use a mirror on a long handle to see into a nest above your head), the shape, size, color, and markings of the eggs can also be great clues for the nest’s identity. As with observing brooding birds, however, take care not to disturb the eggs or stress parent birds that have been displaced. Never touch, handle, or remove the eggs unless they are from unprotected invasive species.
More Identification Tips
While bird nests can be just as distinct and unique as the birds that build them, they can still be hard to identify and there may be only very subtle differences between the nests of two very different species. If you’re having trouble identifying a particular nest:
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- Consider the breeding range of birds that could possibly build it. While vagrant birds can occasionally nest well outside their expected breeding territory, it is far more likely that the nest belongs to a familiar species.
- Note when the nest is actively in use and how that timing corresponds to the breeding season of different birds. Some species nest very early in the season while others nest very late, but be aware that earlier nesters may also have multiple broods later in the season.
- Watch for eggs from brood parasites such as brown-headed cowbirds that may look very different than other eggs in the nest. Not all birds are regular hosts for parasitic eggs, and spotting one can help narrow down the probable identities of the nest occupants.
- Visit a local nature center, wildlife refuge visitor center, or similar facility to check if there are any exhibits of common local nests available to study. Seeing positively identified nests up close can give you a better understanding of how to identify nests and make sense of each wild nest you spot. Just like with bird identification, nest identification takes practice and it isn’t always possible to identify every nest you find.