Making a Bird-and-Butterfly-Friendly Garden
The longer days and warmer weather of spring brings green grass, fragrant flowers, and birds and butterflies. This time of year, many of our high-flying friends return home from their wintering spots to raise families.
Handcrafted houses in your garden can provide important sources of shelter and safety for many species of birds and butterflies. Here are a few tips for making your fair weathered friends at home in your yard!
Birdhouses
A safe and secure birdhouse needs a few specific features:
- A properly-sized opening to prevent larger, more aggressive birds and predators from getting in
- Sturdy construction to help protect and insulate the birds and their nest
- A sloped roof to direct water away from the house
Many of our beautifully handmade birdhouses fit the bill for your favorite winged guests!
Pink Flamingo Birdhouse
Suhani Painted Birdhouse
Sulok Takip Birdhouse
Our Pink Flamingo Birdhouse from the Philippines is perfect for birds like flycatchers and bluebirds with its larger opening and bigger box space. Plus, it's handmade from fast-growing takip-asin wood, and painted a cheerful pink to bring a bit of the tropics to your spring garden.
Want even more color? Our hand-painted Suhani Painted Birdhouse from India can be hung from a tree or placed on your porch, and is another bright abode for your larger flying friends, and you'll welcome them home with a painted red heart at the door!
Our sturdy Sulok Takip Birdhouse in takip-asin wood with galtang vine from the Philippines will house smaller birds such as chickadees, titmice, wrens, and nuthatches.
You'll find a wide variety of other handmade birdhouses at serrv.org, from our popular Ipil-Ipil Birdhouse to our Cardinal Gourd Birdhouse, all ready to hang for your feathered friends.
Rangeni Painted Bird Feeder
Rustic Sunflower Bird Feeder
Eco-Iron Hanging Birdbath
HINT! Having trouble getting the birds to stay? Make sure you also have plenty of available food and water sources. Our Rangeni Painted or Rustic Sunflower Birdfeeders are perfect for holding numerous kinds of birdseed, and our Eco-Iron Hanging Birdbath is perfect for a quick drink or splash!
Butterfly Houses
To encourage these beautiful pollinators to stay in your garden, why not give them a place they can call home! While butterflies probably won't take up residence like a bird, they'll use these special houses for shelter, especially during inclement weather. Plus, a handmade butterfly bungalow brings a splash of color to any yard.
You'll want your butterfly house to have a couple of features:
- Long, narrow slits in one face to allow butterflies to crawl inside while warding off predators
- Bright colors-- this helps the butterflies find them!
Tranquil Teal Takip Butterfly House
Tickled Pink Takip Butterfly House
Our Tranquil Teal and Tickled Pink Takip Butterfly Houses, both handmade in the Philippines, are ideal resting spots complete with color and rustic charm.
Mount your Butterfly House about 4 feet off the ground, somewhere it's sheltered from the wind, and make sure it's steady and secure. Also plant butterfly-friendly greenery and flowers nearby to provide the butterflies a reliable source of food. Take these steps, and your house is likely to attract several species of butterflies!
HINT! When is the best time is to put your bird or butterfly house? Right away! If you set up early, birds coming back from wintering in the spring will have a place to stay after a long trip, and butterflies will appreciate having a cozy spot to hunker down when spring weather turns gray.
Show Us Your Bird and Butterfly Houses!
Do you have pictures of your bird or butterfly houses in action? Or photos of your feathered visitors nesting? Send them to us! We love seeing birds using our handmade birdhouses, like this darling photo from our friend Ruby of a Carolina Wren nesting in a Coconut Monkey Birdhouse. Email marketing@serrv.org, and your photos could be featured on SERRV's social media pages!
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