How to winterize a birdhouse

To winterize a birdhouse to protect birds in sub zero conditions doesn't need much intervention on your part, as a wooden birdhouse would have insulated walls in place.

How do you winterize a birdhouse personally is to simply cover the air vents, which also act as drainage holes on the floor. Be sure the block of wood covering the hole is elevated to allow drainage still. Close up wide gaps with out of reach exterior graded insulated foam, or layer the floor with wood chips.

If you've situated your birdhouse to attract specific bird species, then the birdhouse itself will already be winterized.

But it doesn't hurt to go one further to protect the same birds returning to the box every night, as long as it stays cold. Birdhouses are made in wood mostly, thus the thick wooden walls will keep the roosting birds warmish.

Never take birdhouses down in winter because birds will use it to roost. Instead you can leave it as it is, providing its clean out of old nesting material, then prep it for new arrivals in the fall through winter as they roost in the box to get through the winter.

What you need to do to winterize a wooden box initially, is to cover up one section of air vents to reduce or stop cold air passing through.

You can do that by covering the drainage holes on the inner floor with a piece of wood, but of course this wood block must be elevated to allow drainage to continue.

Snow can be allowed build up on the roof of the birdhouse as its insulation in itself, yet it must be pushed off or melted using grit or salt if the extra weight risks collapsing the box.

Where you place a bird house in the yard can protect roosting birds in winter, whilst directing the birdhouse so its facing the correct direction - to avoid prevailing cold winter wind entering the box entry hole - is an important rule to follow.

When making efforts to reduce the blistering winter cold, never alter the entry hole size to the birdhouse, as it will effectively change what species it can attract.

Before the birdhouse is ready to accept winter roosting birds, you'd need to inspect the birdhouse for potential issues that can get worse later, whilst considering painting the birdhouse again to help add an extra but little effect, coat of paint.

Cover up birdhouse base

While keeping in mind a birdhouse of any kind risks flooding if no drainage holes exist, or indeed are available but inadvertently covered up - drainage plus ventilation holes can be covered to reduce the cold air flow.

What you will need initially is a block of wood the same size of the inner birdhouse floor, to simply cover the holes drilled out of the bottom.

What this can do is reduce the cold wind passing through the box drastically, thus the cold wind inside the birdhouse can't cause harm to roosting birds.

Now, in a matter of safety, a birdhouse at wintertime especially does risk flooding, thus we must make sure the vent holes that act as drainage holes on the floor are not covered up all the way.

What you can do is be sure the block of say half-inch thick plywood or cedar doubling up the floor thickness - does allow air to flow around the outsides.

With that, you can use several additional chunks of wood to add to the floor, to then put the floor covering wood block on top to allow some air to flow under the wood piece.

Close gaps in Insulating Foam Sealant

Personally I wouldn't find any other way to winterize a birdhouse other than possibly covering the drainage/ventilation holes to reduce cold air flow.

However, there is an opportunity to at least seal up too wide gaps on the upper part of the birdhouse, which would be located on the roof overhang on both left and right side of the birdhouse.

What makes a good birdhouse is plenty of air ventilation but in winter, we could cover it up to keep the roosting birds out of the cold.

First apply blocks of custom saw blocks of wood to the too wide gaps if you can, or else you can use an outdoor graded isolation foam.

Now, let me just say this stuff is non toxic but it will kill birds if they are allowed to ingest it.

What you must do with this exterior graded isolation foam is use it on the highest part of the internal birdhouse only - to keep out of reach of roosting birds.

We don't have to be too concerned about fledglings in the winter of course but then again adult birds do risk swallowing pieces of foam.

Spray this outdoor insulation foam into super wide gaps which would mostly be located under the roof overhang, but never spray the foam lower down.

Salt to melt snow buildup on roof

As common birdhouse birds do use birdhouses in the winter to roost only, we don't have to go so far as to protect the eggs or fledglings like we do come spring.

How to winterize a birdhouse in sub zero conditions then could be similar to how we grit our backyard payment.

Could it be possible at all if you can buy a tub of ice and snow melting grit, in order to add on top of the birdhouse.

Likely area where any birdhouse is situated would be out in the open, thus we can't rely on shrubs or tree cover.

What the melting grit will do is potentially cause any buildup of snow to simply melt away.

Not massively important I grant you, but remember a too heavy build up snow could cause the birdhouse to collapse to the ground, along with roosting birds inside the box.

Similarly, you could just use table salt to sprinkle over your birdhouse roof, but salt does risk damaging the wood. Never mind that, as an additional old blank of wood can be added first... or why not aluminum foil to protect the birdhouse roof top.

On the roof top, how you can keep cats out of birdhouses is to mount a wide plank of wood above a birdhouse; this can keep cats from reaching the entry hole - but as a bonus the falling snow or wind direction is unlikely to enter the entrance hole under cover.

Layer interior with 2 inch wood chips

Whatever you decide to do when winterizing a birdhouse in the colder months, never use the easy solution by pulling down the birdhouse come winter.

Birdhouses are used in spring through summertime for the nesting season, whereas the same birds or new arrivals could re-use the now cleaned out birdhouse to simply roost in to avoid super cold nights.

To keep the one or several wild birds roosting in your box warm, or at least comfortable, would be to line the birdhouse floor with wood chips.

You can put wood chips in a birdhouse but nothing else, whereas certain bird species do appreciate the head start with material added when they nest - but wouldn't be too worried about it when they roost.

You can use 2 to 3 inches of wood chips to line the floor of the birdhouse, but really you don't have to add anything to the birdhouse at all.

Why birdhouses are important is it helps birds to bring new life in to this big bad world, all while the birdhouse could protect the same birds come winter so they can survive sub zero conditions.

Summary

How to winterize a birdhouse come the fall, ready for sub zero conditions later in winter doesn't require intervention on your part at all ready; thus you just have to clean the box of old nesting material to make way for roosting birds.

Birds come to roost in your birdhouse to survive super cold nights, we don't have to be concerned about their unhatched eggs or fledglings at this time of year.

We can still fortify our birdhouses in order to reduce the freezing cold air passing through the box.

To do that we can cut off one section of ventilation holes which happen to act as drainage holes on the base of the birdhouse. Simply apply a block of wood on top of the inner floor to cover up the air vents.

We still want water or moisture to drain thus this block of wood must be elevated a bit.

If your birdhouse features super wide open gaps we can close them up so far or all the way to protect roosting birds.

Rely on an outdoor graded insulation foam that covers up gaps to block off the cold.

Options can include pouring snow melting grit to the roof top to prevent it getting heavy, but on the other hand snow covered birdhouses can maintain a mild temperature.

Similarly, you can cover the roof top in aluminum to then add regular salt to the out roof top, to avoid the salt damaging the wood.

What else you can do but it isn't necessary is apply 2 to 3 inches of wood chips to the internal birdhouse floor, which would act more as comfortable bedding.

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