18 
FARMERS^ BULLETIN 609. 
LOCATION. 
The location of a bird house or food shelter has much to do with its 
success, for the reason that birds have decided notions as to proper 
surroundings for a dwelling. Martins prefer to breed near houses, 
but not within 20 feet of trees or buildings. Bluebirds are inclined to 
select orchards or pastures having scattered trees. Wrens, thrashers, 
and catbirds live in thick shrubbery. Robins like trees with sturdy 
trunks and branches. Titmice, nuthatches, and most of the wood¬ 
peckers are woodland species, although flickers and red-headed wood¬ 
peckers are more at home among the scattered trees of roadsides and 
pastures. Song sparrows frequent weedy swales and brush fences. 
Swallows do not enter woods so that a house would be as attractive 
to them in one open place as in another. The eastern phoebe, the 
black phoebe, and the house finch, while not limited to the haunts of 
man, are noticeably partial to them. Crested flycatchers, screech 
owls, barn owls, and sparrow hawks are governed more by conven¬ 
ience than by taste; although normally inclined to hold aloof from 
man, they have in many instances reared their broods in close prox¬ 
imity to dwellings. Barn owls, true to their name, accept suitable 
quarters in buildings without hesitation, 
CONCLUSION. 
Before erecting bird houses one should first determine the kind of 
birds to which his premises are adapted. The question usually next 
arising is as to the number of birds that can be accommodated. 
Unless grounds are large, it is generally useless to expect as tenants 
more than a pair of each species, except martins. However, the 
singular intolerance shown by most birds during the breeding season 
to others of their kind does not operate between those of different 
species. A dozen different kinds of birds will pursue their several 
modes of hunting and raise their families on the same lot, but rarely 
two of the same sort.^ Of all our house birds, martins alone are 
1 The fact that birds are more tolerant toward strangers than toward relatives was well illustrated by an 
observation made recently by the writer in New Mexico. A one-story tool house 10 feet square had nailed 
to three corners of its roof rough bird houses made from packing boxes. One was occupied by violet-green 
swallows, another by western bluebirds, and the third by English sparrows. A still more remarkable asso¬ 
ciation of different species has been reported by Otto Widmann, of St. Louis, Mo., who once had a pair each 
of flickers, martins, house wrens, and English sparrows nesting simultaneously in the samehouse. 
