I Was In Broga For The Second Time !!!

Yesterday I was invited to view an 8 months old BH but with not a single nests inside.

The owner called asking me to take a good look at the house and perhaps make some recommendations.

Hmm.....

Everything looks okay. Entrance hole direction was in the right position facing the returning flight path. There was a small pool in the roving area.

The number of tweeters (internal sound) were more then what I expected.

The external sound tweeters were also enough but not properly located. Those tweeters on the entrance hole seem to be a bit too awkward.

The owner seem to have his own methods of DIY the BH to what he thinks right but he forgot about what those birds likes.

He went over to a neighboring country to learn by visiting a few BHs and came back with all the things he learned.

He believed that it is better to put more light sources in the house as compare to making them totally dark.

He installed those mist spray nozzles on the supporting beam closed to the ceiling.

He recently constructed rooms at the back of the nesting room areas.

According to him he recently removed those exhaust fans since there were making too much noise. Now he placed those 4'PVC pipes but were white in color. They become like a neon bulbs during day time.

He laid a kind of very fine wire mesh on all the nesting planks. According to him it will make the birds easier to latch onto it.

One weak point was he did not change the external sound for some time.

The internal temperature and humidity were within range but why those birds refuse to enter?

I spend a few long minutes to try playing some new sounds.

The birds immediately attack the tweeters but on many occasions they refuse to enter the entrance hole at all.

Weired and difficult to understand such strange behaviours.

My deductions were as follows:

1) The area he selected was not below the flight path of those birds flying home.

2) The number of birds were not that encouraging. There was another BH build earlier but with some nests. Most of the birds prefer the other unit.

3) The externals sound was not powerful enough. The neighbor seem to have a melody of about three to four sounds while his was only one. I will try to come out with a better sound Melody for his BH.

4) The tweeters on the entrance hole was not properly located. Too deep inside as such the sound coverage areas were limited. I will arrange to relocate them during the renovation operation.

5) Since he opted to using a side entrance type his external sound only go towards the front section of the BH. What if there were birds flying at the back? I recommended a hexagonal tweeter to be installed on the rooftop.

6) The positioning of the external sound tweeters in the house were not properly located. Those birds, once they crossed any tweeter the sound will be totally lost. If you want those birds to go straight down to the targeted area the follow up tweeters must be located with high precision.

7) The LAL (Lubang Antara Lantai) was not located at the point where I would love to have. They were not immediately after the birds enter the nesting room. I feel this is one of the common mistakes of many BH owners. They placed those LAL where they feel easier for them (not the birds) to go up and down. We need to design to suit the birds not human. Since the LAL were already fixed, I cannot do much on this matter.

8) I was very concerned with the location of those water spray nozzles positioning. I think they are too closed to the nesting planks. To me they should be on the BH walls and not the ceiling beams. Too close for comfort. If there was a silly mistake the whole nesting planks will be wet and allow those fungus to grow.

9) The idea to remove the exhaust fans and replace with those pvc pipes were okay. However I was a bit disturbed when the owner opt for a white colored pvc pipes. The translucent properties allows too much light into the BH. The owner is not aware about those echolocation ability which those birds possess.

10)The owner have a very strange experience. During one of his visit the lights on the 2nd floor were not switched off. There were a few birds there but there were also a few that were dead on the floor. I cannot make any conclusion but the death could be contributed to getting lost and could not find their way out. Due to hunger or thirst they died.

11) During external sound testing, it seem that those birds do have some special attraction to three sounds "The Black Cloud, Shooting Star and D'Tsunami." Other sounds seem to be of little interest to them. The sound melody shall be a combination of these three plus those mating&baby sound.

12) There were no fake nests on the nesting planks. I remembered he just bought from me about 200 pieces. I need to push him to install during my next visit.

13) No fresh bird shit on the floor. I need to arrange for some during the coming week.

The above are just some interesting observations and remarks that can be of special helps to those of your who faces similar problems.

All you need to do is to try the above recommendations and I am sure there will be some changes in your BH.





Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.