Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344189 in Books
• Published on: 1990-06-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 95 pages

Customer Reviews

The one to get if you want to actually have birds nest in the birdhouses you build
I bought this book in spite of several bad reviews and am grateful that I did. I think it is excellent for the beginning bird house builder as well as the advanced work worker.

It's good for the beginner because it explains the basics and gives one or two very simple, easy to build designs that will work. It also explains what is important in getting birds to use them and why.

It's good for a more experienced birder/woodworker because it gives you something far more valuable than a cookie cutter plan - it gives you the critical entrance hole and box dimensions required for each species. Armed with this information, a good woodworker can create their own designs and be as creative as they like. After all, a birdhouse is essentially a box with a hole in it. Detailed plans aren't required, at least not for the things the birds care about (entrance holes, box dimensions, placement).

If you aren't comfortable doing basic woodworking yet, do yourself a favor a buy a book devoted to the subject. And if all you care about is pretty designs - regardless of whether birds use them - look elsewhere. But if your primary goal is getting birds to nest in your birdhouses, buy this book.

Only one plan in the entire book, very disappointing
This book is a huge letdown. I was hoping for some plans on birdhouses. What you get instead is pictures of the BIRDS (not the houses) and only one plan for super basic and simple square birdhouse plan. Don't waste your money on this one.

USEFUL BOOK - BUT WITH LIMITATIONS.
First, let me state that I am a big fan of Donald and Lillian Stokes and their many guide books. For the most part, these are all very useful guides and this team has done a great job of bring the wonders of our natural world to us. With this work though, and I consider it thier weakest work, they come up a bit short. I suppose the title "The Complete Birdhouse Book," I feel, is a bit misleading. It is far from "complete." The authors do give us some of the best work I have seen in this area as to bird house placement, care and maintenance. But they come up quite lacking in the area of actually building a bird house! The beginning woodworker will find the scant directions difficult to follow even for the most basic of houses. When they get into the area of "advanced" houses, well, forget it! There are dozens and dozens of books out there that cover this subject much better and are actually useful.

On the other hand, I did find this book to be quite useful in the placement of the house, and very informative as to the nesting habits of several of the birds that use houses to nest, so not all was lost. The book is well organized, the photographs are great and the text easy to read. I am giving this one four stars rather than three simply because of the apparent effort that went into writing this book and simply because these are the Stokes. I just wish they had been more adept in the area of birdhouse construction.