Best bird house for Florida weather

ltwalsh · Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:34 pm

Just moved from illinois to Florida and want to start a colony down here. Used birds choice aluminum ones up north. Will they be ok down here? Or is wood or plastic better?

DLN · Thu Feb 25, 2021 7:18 am

Hi ltwalsh, welcome to Florida! I am in NW Florida directly on the coast in Mary Esther, FL. In my cove, there are five homeowners with martin housing up. All are aluminum of different styles and brands except mine, it is wood. The martins seem to flourish in all of them. I see more gourd racks further inland as I drive around the area. The martins seem to flourish in those too. So, one could guess the aluminum housing you had in Illinois should work fine in Florida too. Every material will have its pros and cons concerning durability in the Florida sun and humid salt air but none of them seems to be a detriment, overall, in my area of NW Florida. Good luck with starting your new colony!

DLN

ltwalsh · Thu Feb 25, 2021 7:43 am

DLN Thanks for your quick response.

Next question. Is it too late to,put one up this week?

DLN · Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:31 am

Hi ltwalsh, definitely not too late! Put the house up as soon as you can and good luck!

DLN

SSMartin · Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:10 pm

The sub adults will be hitting us hard here in the next few weeks. Get that house up!

ltwalsh · Thu Feb 25, 2021 9:44 pm

Arrives Saturday I’ll have them up by end of weekend!! Thanks for all your help!,

bird fan · Sun Feb 28, 2021 2:14 pm

The Best choice is plastic (gourds) or wood and I always get the asked the question why wood? Simple its a natural self insulation material, Aluminum is easy to work with and will never rot, but its also a conductor meaning it will conduct cold and heat, in Florida when temps reach 90 plus aluminum will also reach that and at a higher temperature usually by 10 degrees or more so in reality the birds are housing in an oven Poly wood is another good choice its light weight and will not rot here is a pic of my polywood Northstar

ltwalsh · Sun Feb 28, 2021 2:38 pm

Greg thanks for the response. I already purchased an aluminum house, assembled it, and raised it today.

Any ideas for venting?

DLN · Sun Feb 28, 2021 3:15 pm

Hi ltwalsh, Greg made some excellent points about the properties of aluminum. I might also add that aluminum surfaces can be highly reflective—more so if painted white. Radiant energy, visible light, radiant heat, and electromagnetic waves are efficiently reflected. Much of the incoming solar radiation will be reflected back into the atmosphere instead of conducted. Exception would be anodized aluminum, it does not reflect well at all.

DLN

ltwalsh · Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:03 am

Update house is up and get Martin visitors pretty much all day long. Mostly buzz the house trying to get my decoy to fly.

. No overnight visitors yet but encouraged by the frequent visitors!

The decoy has survived a hawk attack!!

Hoping to get overnight guest soon!!

DLN · Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:20 pm

Hi ltwalsh! That’s great news!

DLN

ltwalsh · Thu Mar 18, 2021 7:51 am

Got up early this morning still dark and sat outside. Heard Martins chirping close but couldn’t determine where they were. At times it sounded like it was coming from the house at other times not. Figured I could determine exact location at daybreak. Yet when day broke not a sound?

I am thinking I have overnight visitors? My previous colonies my houses where not as close so this is new to me.

The chirping was consistently the same sounds. Not like during the day.