"Tractor Muffler" Bluebird House

Tractor Muffler Bluebird House FARM HOME Miscellaneous After trying unsuccessfully to attract bluebirds to his farm Philip Berglund Dayton Iowa got the idea to build his own out of ordinary metal rain downspouts And it worked      For years I tried using different kinds of commercial bluebird nesting boxes but I could never keep the sparrows out of them says Berglund Then one day when I started up my diesel tractor a bluebird nest blew right up out of the exhaust pipe which is curved 90 degrees at the top I had just reroofed one of my buildings and had removed the building s 3 1/2-in dia galvanized metal downspouts because they were no longer needed I decided to convert them into bluebird nests that mimic the exhaust muffler     He started with a galvanized metal elbow which he cut at an angle at one end to keep rain out He compression fitted the other end of the elbow to a 4-ft length of galvanized metal downspout pipe About 10 in down from the elbow he drilled four small opposing holes in the pipe He inserted two wires all the way through so they crossed to make a support for the nest Then he screwed the bottom end of the pipe onto a post      It s a simple idea but it works and sparrows won t go into them They take only about 15 minutes to make says Berglund I came up with the idea last year and have set up two so far After making the first one I walked several hundred yards away and by the time I sat down in a lawn chair a bluebird had already found it      Since the downspout is made from metal cats can t climb up it However the nest should be mounted high enough to keep cats from jumping up onto the elbow I think sparrows don t like going down into the elbow I set the nest wires 10 in deep but it would probably be easier for the baby birds to climb out if the nest was just a few inches deep     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Philip Berglund 3325 Washington Ave Dayton IA 50530 515-838-2740

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