The Negative Side Of Becoming A Birdhouse "Sifu" !!!

Many of us tend to look at bird house "Sifus" as those who have the magical touches that can bring those wild birds instantly the moment the new BH is put into operation.

Some will have this imagination that the moment their new BH is put into operation the Sifu will draw in every single swiftlet found in the sky into their house, only their house.

The truth is not that simple.  Every BH have its own peculiarity and those birds will be the one that will decide to stay or not to stay in the new house.

We human can only predict what they like and dislike but the final decision will be those birds.

How long do you think my new BH will show signs that the birds have entered and stayed overnight?

My normal answer will be:  It depend but normally the first week you can see some signs if you stay away from the house.  Try not to enter the house too often because every time you enter the house you will leave some traces of your body odor.

From my many experiences, if you design the house properly with good external and internal sounds, those birds will enter your BH within days.  Those that stays are usually young birds that are looking around for a place to call home.  During their stay they actually will carry out a kind of due diligent to ensure that the house is safe for their family.

This is why it is not advisable to keep entering a new BH because if you bum into them you will actually scares them unnecessarily.  They might immediately decided to move to a new place.

After staying in the house around 5 to 8 weeks, if they feel safe, the couple will then start building their nest.

Once the nest is partially readied they couple will start to copulate and the female will lay her two eggs.

It is nice to have your BH to reach that stage after having nightmares thinking when will my BH be populated.

It is rather easy to have a few nests after a few months but to move to a profitable level is not so.

The BH owner need to continuously monitor the situation and if the growth suddenly stopped or slowed down, there must be something affecting those birds.

The owner must identify the possible problems and find ways to eliminate or minimise the problems....

Coming back to the negative side of becoming a "Sifu" I tend to agree that there are many a time when a BH is successful all the credits will go to the owner but when it failed the failure is due to a bad "Sifu".

Both seem to be favoring the owner and "Sifus" seem to be always the looser.

So if you have a good and dedicated "Sifu" give some credits to him and make sure you treat him like a normal human being. .......