It's never too late- though you'll want to install your birdhouse prior to nesting season for optimal residency!
Regardless of weather, scouts are out & about house shopping! In other words, birds are looking for the best nest boxes and natural cavities to find and impress a mate.
Even with snow on the ground, nature tells them its time via longer daylight hours (yay for longer days)!
Not all birds will use your handmade birdhouse- but many are still claiming territory and looking for the best possible digs! Cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves and house finches start early in March, while goldfinches' and robins' nest season is later in April and June.
With the nesting season here for many of our resident birds, finding a suitable birdhouse is serious work. Native nesting birds drastically outnumber available rental units! For the ones who don't use birdhouses, their natural habitats continue to shrink.
You can easily encourage nest building around your place this season by installing a birdhouse... handmade or otherwise- and by offering nesting materials before the season actually starts. Even those who nest in natural cavities, trees and shrubs will likely partake if material's made available!
And you can get some of that material for free! For a limited time we'll be adding free nesting material with all orders to further entice feathered friends!
Never place the material inside the birdhouse because avian friends prefer to decorate their own homes. Our nesting material comes complete with simple directions for best use :)
Side note:
Perch not necessary: in fact they're discouraged because the resident bird using the birdhouse doesn't need one. Perches are mostly aesthetic though they're known to attract predators. This makes nestlings easy prey for thieving paws or large beaks of bully birds.
Correct hole size, drainage & ventilation necessary: if you're trying to attract bluebirds, don't use a birdhouse with 2" entry. Likewise, a house with 1" entry wont suit your blues either.
Below is a list of the most common cavity nesting birds with proper birdhouse entry diameter.
Eastern Bluebird 1-1/2"
Western/Mountain Bluebird 1-9/16"
Chickadee 1-1/8"
Purple Martin 2-1/2"
Nuthatch 1-1/4"
Wood Duck 4"
House Wren 1-1/8"
Carolina Wren 1-1/2"
Titmouse 1-1/4"
Tree Swallow 1-1/2"
Screech Owl 3"
Hairy Woodpecker 2-1/2"
Downy Woodpecker 1-1/2"
Red Headed Woodpecker 2-1/4"
Northern Flicker 2-1/2"