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Building Bluebird Bird Houses – How to build a bird house

Building Bluebird bird houses is a great afternoon project.

How to build bluebird birdhouses

I know because my daughters spent a Saturday afternoon building some with my Dad.

They had so much fun using tools with their grand-father.

I say they, but I think Emanuelle enjoyed it more. haha

DIY Bluebird birdhouses. Learn how to build a bird house for bluebirds.

About 25 years ago, my Dad built several bluebird bird houses for my grand-parents. They live on a farm and really enjoy having bluebirds nesting on their property.

They have them attached to fence posts all the way up their very long driveway.

Skip forward to now, the bird houses have started to fall apart and it’s time to make new ones.

As soon as my daughters heard my Dad mention that he was going to build bird houses, they made sure to tell him that they wanted to help!

Bluebird bird house plans

The bluebird bird house plans come from a book that my Dad has owned for as long as I can remember.

If you want actual plans and dimensions, there are a lot available online, search for bluebird bird house plans.

Many offer plans for one board that you make a few cuts in, and voilà.. you have all the pieces you need. 

This post also contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Building Bluebird Bird Houses

My Dad started off by taking out old barn wood and cutting them down to birdhouse size. Bluebirds like nesting in bird houses in natural tones.

Measuring wood to cut pieces to make bluebird birdhouse.
Cutting pieces of barn wood to make the birdhouses

Once all the side pieces were cut, Gabrielle and Emanuelle pre-assembled the bird houses to make sure everything fit together nicely.

The girls loved that it was like doing a puzzle. hehe

How to pre-assemble a bird house.
Sides of the birdhouse
How to pre-assemble a bird house.
Bottom of the birdhouse before drilling drainage holes.

Next it was time to pre-drill holes (pilot holes) with the drill press in order to assemble the bird houses with screws.

We opted to use screws to assemble the bluebird birdhouses because they can easily be unscrewed in order to clean them out if necessary. Bonus, it makes for a quicker build too!

Using the drill press to pre-drill holes (drill pilot holes) in order to assemble the bird houses with screws.
Assemble the birdhouse with screws inside the pilot holes.

As soon as Emanuelle saw her grand-father using the drill press, she wanted in on the action. 

Who could blame her? A drill press is a pretty neat tool!

The pilot holes (pre-drill holes) Emanuelle made, were the ones for when we would attach the bottoms to the body.

Using the drill press to pre-drill holes in order to assemble the bird houses with screws

Once the sides were attached, my Dad and Emanuelle used the drill press to drill holes for the bluebirds to enter the bird houses.

We made markings in the front where we wanted to drill the bird peep holes.

Marking for drill hole for bird entry.
Drilling bird entry hole for a birdhouse.
Drilling bird peep hole.
Bluebird birdhouse hole.

We proceeded to attach the bottom using screws inside the pilot holes.

We also used the drill press to make a few holes on the bottom pieces of the bird houses for drainage.

Insert screws inside the pilot holes.

To finish the bird houses, my Dad cut pieces of wood to make the roofs.

Wood piece for birdhouse roof

Once the pieces were cut, we drilled pilot holes in order to attach the roofs onto the bird houses.

And of course, we drilled a little hole at the top in order to easily screw it onto a fence post.

Pilot holes to attach the bluebird bidhouse onto a post.

We placed the roof pieces over the bluebird houses.

Adding the roof onto the bird house.

Then we attached the roofs onto the bluebird birdhouses with screws.

Attaching a roof onto a bird house.

Emanuelle wanted to use the drill too.

Emanuelle’s hair kept falling in her face, Grandpa made sure to hold it back so she could see what she was doing. haha They did a great job, didn’t they?

Bluebird Houses

Building Bluebird bird houses
DIY Bluebird birdhouses. Learn how to build a bird house for bluebirds.
DIY Bluebird birdhouses. Learn how to build a bird house for bluebirds.

I’ll make sure to take photos of them hanging on the fence posts next time I go up, and I’ll share them with you. I know Emanuelle is really looking forward to seeing bluebirds enjoying them.

Want more bird house inspiration?

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20+ Stunning Bird Houses - A beautiful collection of fabulous birdhouses!

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Bird Feeders

DIY Bluebird Birdhouses

DIY Bluebird birdhouses. Learn how to build a bird house for bluebirds. Building bird houses is fun, especially when you build some with your family. Learn how to build bluebird bird houses, a great afternoon project. #diybirdhouse #birdhouse

Have you made bird houses or bird feeders before?

Do your children like to participate when you build stuff?

P.S. If you liked the bluebird bird houses, please feel free to PIN and/or Share with your friends. :)

Signature

Bonnie

Thursday 14th of May 2020

It's great seeing them build the bird houses together. Quality time spent and good photos to remember the moment. Please get Emanuelle a hair net or something to secure her hair for safety's sake!!!

Amy

Monday 23rd of March 2020

Great tutorial! I love painting them with the kids when they’re done too! Pinned!

julie sale

Thursday 7th of June 2018

hello, i am new to this website. i do love all kinds of birds, have alot's wild birds living in my front yard. i do feed them everyday . but i need to find somebody that can build me some birdhouse to fix up to put in my shop. i am also the birdhouse lady. what i do is i buy the unpainted birdhouse from hobby lobby. i paint them. i sale them. i have painted so many birdhouses. i would like to buy some birdhouse for me to paint. if any body can make some birdhouse for my birds to live in and for my customers to buy them. if you could send me your email, i will send some of my pictures to you. thank you, julie

Virginia

Wednesday 7th of March 2018

What fun! I love the birdhouses. Thanks for the tutorial. Pinning.

Christine @ theDIYdreamer

Monday 12th of March 2018

You're very welcome! Thanks so much!

Shonee

Sunday 7th of June 2015

Christine those are so cute!! I love that you used old barn wood my fav!! Thanks for sharing this over at Bewitchin' Projects Block party! Hope you can join us again this week! -Shonee

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