I'm going to show you how to attract the kind of birds you want to your birdhouse, and other little-known things that are extremely helpful in that process.

I'm also going to show you how you can make sure you pick a birdhouse that will both be attractive to the right kind of bird, and also how to protect that bird (and possibly its family) from predators as well as nature..

First, consider what kind of bird (or birds) you wish to attract, and make sure your birdhouse is appropriately sized.

Bluebirds, chickadees, swallows, wrens and other small birds are attracted to homes with small openings. An opening of 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" allows these birds to enter the home, while preventing larger species, especially starlings from entering and attacking.

Flickers, woodpeckers, ducks and other larger birds require birdhouses with much larger openings. The only drawback to this is that you wont be able to keep out pest birds from such houses by the size of the opening.

But no matter what kind of bird you want to attract, and when you know the proper size birdhouse to use... make sure the home you select has these 3 important features to it:

1) VENTILATION

A good birdhouse should have some space between the roof and the sides of the box to allow for ventilation. Without good ventilation, eggs could overheat and be killed. And we dont want that.

Also, a wet nest might not properly dry out later - which could possibly inviting fungus, mold or disease. (and we dont want this either).

2) DRAINAGE

There should be a few small holes in the floor to allow any rain or moisture that does happen to sneak in to get drained away by gravity.

Because without drainage, you risk fungus, mold, and disease... not to mention the (somewhat) obvious possibility of the birdhouse actually filling with water and drowning or killing the birds.

3) AN OUT OF THE SUN OPENING

Its important to keep the opening of the birdhouse shaded, mainly in the summer, because some birds nurture their eggs at very controlled temperatures. So if the temperature inside the birdhouse elevates even a few degrees the eggs might not hatch.

Not only that, but you also risk the parent birds overheating and abandoning the birdhouse, or even dying. If you've ever seen some birdhouses that overhang, they sometimes do so just for this particular reason.