Where to put a bird house
Put a bird house where its bird lives, at its height: 4 to 6 ft in open ground for a bluebird, 5 to 15 ft near mature trees for chickadees and titmice, up to 20 ft for a White-breasted Nuthatch, 6 to 12 ft in shaded open woods for a flicker, 3 to 6 ft on a building for a Carolina Wren. Put pole boxes on a freestanding metal pole with a baffle below, clear of branches, and face each box the way its design says, most often away from the prevailing wind.
Height, setting, direction and spacing, bird by bird
| Bird | Mount | Setting | Facing | Same-bird spacing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Bluebird | On a pole, 4 to 6 ft up | Open ground: grassland or open woodland | East | 300 ft |
| Black-capped Chickadee | On a pole, 5 to 15 ft up | Woods or a yard with mature trees | Away from the prevailing wind | 650 ft |
| Carolina Chickadee | On a pole, 4 to 15 ft up | Woods or a yard with mature trees | Any direction (NestWatch’s placement table: away from the prevailing wind) | 30 ft |
| Tufted Titmouse | On a pole, 5 to 15 ft up | Mature broadleaf woods | Away from the prevailing wind | 580 ft |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | On a pole, 5 to 20 ft up | Mature woods | South (NestWatch’s placement table: away from the prevailing wind) | 1,040 ft |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | On a pole, 5 to 15 ft up | Mature conifer woods | Away from the prevailing wind | 150 ft |
| Northern Flicker | On a pole, 6 to 12 ft up | Shaded open woods with a clear flight path to the box | South or east | 330 ft |
| Carolina Wren | On a building, 3 to 6 ft up | A sheltered, partly enclosed spot near shrubs | Any direction | 330 ft |
Height and setting
Each bird has its own height and setting, in the table above. Height is only half of it: a bluebird box belongs in open ground, a titmouse box among mature broadleaf trees.
Which way it faces
NestWatch’s placement table faces most boxes away from the prevailing wind. Some species pages say otherwise: east for the bluebird, south for the White-breasted Nuthatch, south or east for the flicker, and any direction for the Carolina Chickadee and the Carolina Wren. The table above follows each bird’s own page.
How far apart
The spacing in the table is between boxes for the same bird, and it varies a lot: 30 ft for the Carolina Chickadee, 1,040 ft for the White-breasted Nuthatch. It is not a rule for boxes of different birds.
A pole and a baffle
Mount a pole box on a freestanding metal pole, away from branches and anything else a predator could cross from, with a baffle below the box: a cone about 3 ft across, or a stovepipe about 8 in across and 24 to 36 in long. A flicker’s pole stands at least 10 ft from the nearest tree.
Guard the hole and the roof
A metal guard around the hole, cut to the same size, resists anything trying to widen it. It does not stop climbers, so it goes with a baffle, not instead of one.
NestWatch’s building guide gives a roof overhang of 2 to 4 in at the front; its predator guide gives 5 in, to make reaching in from above harder. They answer different needs, so choose for yours rather than splitting the difference.
Feeder poles and nest box poles
A feeder pole’s fittings and a nest box’s are not made to swap. Check how the box maker says to mount the box before reusing a feeder pole or baffle.