Before searching the internet for birdhouse plans, you should start by answering the following question:
Here’s why: There are THOUSANDS of different free birdhouse plans available online, from small houses for chickadees to platform nests for robins to large nest boxes for owls. The size, style, and location of your birdhouse will determine which types of birds will be attracted to nest inside.
I have organized my list below by the type of bird you are hoping to attract. Most of the house plans include a PDF you can download or a video.
Before we begin, I want to provide a warning:
Each of the birdhouse plans listed below is designed to ACTUALLY attract birds to your backyard. The dimensions, engineering, and size of the entrance hole were created with each specific bird species in mind.
Lastly, I want to share with you a LIVE look at my backyard bird feeding station. During the day you can expect to see a wide variety of birds common to the Eastern United States. If you’re lucky, you may even observe a juvenile bird coming to the feeders for the first time!
Building appropriately sized birdhouses is a great way to help conserve native bluebirds. No matter the species (Eastern, Western, & Mountain), bluebirds ONLY build nests inside pre-made cavities, which means they can’t create a cavity themselves and rely on using holes that woodpeckers have drilled in seasons past.
Bluebird numbers had been declining for decades due to competition for limited nesting sites (House Sparrows!) and humanity’s preference to remove old and rotting trees that typically have perfect nesting cavities hollowed out.
Luckily, bluebird numbers have been steadily increasing thanks to the heroic efforts of local birders dedicated to building and monitoring bluebird houses.
*Other species that will use bluebird houses: Swallows (Tree, Violet-green), House Sparrows, chickadees (Black-capped, Carolina, Mountain), titmice (Tufted, Oak, Juniper, Black-crested), & wrens (Bewick’s, Carolina, House). European Starlings will also use bluebird houses if the hole is larger than 1-1/2 inches.
Those PDF’s above can be overwhelming for someone like me that is not very handy. I tend to do better following video instructions.
Here is one bluebird house plan that I found and enjoyed on YouTube. It’s fascinating that it was built entirely from a 6-foot dog ear fence picket.
If you have already given up trying to build your own, then buy one of these pre-made houses on Amazon and call it a day.
Northern Cardinals and American Robins are two of the most popular and common birds native to North America. Who doesn’t enjoy watching cardinals visit their bird feeders or robins digging for worms in their yard? And I can’t think of a more pretty color than a blue robins egg!
So it’s no surprise that many people want to build birdhouses that attract these two beautiful birds.
But there is a significant problem:
That’s because only natural cavity nesters like bluebirds, wrens, or chickadees will use enclosed birdhouses where the only way in is through a small hole.
Robins and cardinals, along with Mourning Doves and Barn Swallows prefer open nesting sites!
So instead of building a standard enclosed birdhouse with a small circular entrance hole, we need to create a nesting shelf where these species will feel comfortable enough to make a nest.
I also like that installing nesting shelves around my yard provides a secure place for robins and other birds to raise their young. I can’t tell you how many times I have been monitoring a nest only to have it fall out of the tree after a massive wind storm! If birds could talk, I’m sure they would thank you for providing one of the below nesting platforms.
The list includes Blue Jays, Barn Swallows, Mourning Doves, House Finches, Eastern Phoebes, & Say’s Phoebe.
Robins should use a nesting shelf without much problem as they are not afraid to nest near human activity. Try placing the nest shelf underneath eaves of porches or barns or onto the side of a large mature tree.
Cardinals, on the other hand, are challenging and extremely secretive when it comes to building a nest. If you can attract cardinals to any of the plans listed below, please share what worked!
Here is the best video on YouTube that I could find that demonstrated how to build a nesting shelf. My favorite part is he only uses scrap wood from around the house!
If you don’t want to take the time to make your own, there are a few different birdhouses you can purchase online that are perfect for robins, doves, cardinals, jays, phoebes, etc.
Both chickadee’s and wrens are cavity nesters and regularly use enclosed birdhouses.
To build a birdhouse that only lets chickadees and wrens inside and not larger birds, such as House Sparrows, you want to drill a hole that has a diameter of 1.25 inches.
The bluebird house plans listed in Section #1 above also attract chickadees and wrens, but these small birds will have to compete against a wider variety of species for the nesting space. That’s why I like giving chickadees & wrens their own nesting boxes. 🙂
Here are the different species that may use the above nest boxes, depending on what size hole you drill:
In the video, it is advised to drill the hole 1-1/4 inches in diameter for chickadees. While that distance will work for chickadees, my recommendation is to drill the hole 1-1/8 inches. This diameter will still allow chickadees and House Wrens but prevents House Sparrows.
Don’t like any of the plans listed above? Then try one of these birdhouses that can be purchased on Amazon:
Purple Martins are considered colonial cavity nesters. This means that they like living together in large groups!
So any plans you will find for Purple Martins won’t include just one birdhouse. To successfully attract these birds you need to provide a multifamily martin house or a group of gourds. It’s recommended to give a minimum of 4 cavities, but 6-12 is a better start for a colony.
You should feel good about helping Purple Martins. Over the years these acrobatic birds have become entirely dependent on humans for housing, due to extreme competition from invasive cavity-nesting species such as European Starlings!
You need to know that signing up to host a colony of Purple Martins is not a set it and forget it project. Managing your site requires some maintenance on your end. Here are a few tips and guidelines:
This video shows how to build a GORGEOUS purple mountain house.
If you’re more interested in building a gourd rack for Purple Martins, here’s a video that shows how to install one complete with a pulley system.
*Links take you to Amazon.*
I hope that’s the way you are feeling after learning about all the different bird species you can attract using the above free birdhouse plans.
Just remember that the first question you need to ask yourself is:
Your answer will guide you the specific birdhouse or nestboxes you need.
If you are looking for more information, I’d highly recommend the book below. It gives a lot of great information about not only building birdhouses but also many tips on how to maintain and attract birds to them.
Scott is the creator of Bird Watching HQ. His goal is to inspire you to care more about the birds and wildlife in YOUR backyard. Over the past 5 years, he has been focused on improving the habitat in his own yard by doing things like adding native plants, not using pesticides, etc. He is happy to report that over 50 species of birds have now been seen on his 1.5-acre property (that's in a suburban neighborhood). Learn more about Scott on his About page. And make sure to check out his LIVE bird cameras.
