Why do birds always nest in my garage?
Asked by
bob_ (
21939
)
November 23rd, 2010
In the words of The Carpenters, why do birds suddenly appear—seriously, it’s freaking me out!
For as long as I can remembers, birds (swallows, according to my parents) have nested in my (doorless) garage. I thought it was because we used to have those round light bulbs (like the one here), and they seemed more adept to nesting. At some point we changed to bulbs like this one, but they still come nest when they migrate.
Why do they always nest in our garage? It’s not like the birds that nest one year come back the next, is it? How long do they live? Would they remember where their nest was?
My parents don’t mind because they say they “bring good luck”. I (and my car) disagree.
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6 Answers
Swallows tend to nest inside structures. Just their preference. We had one bird that nested in the same spot on our porch for four years in a row. That’s about max life expectancy in the wild.
Swallows are actually one species that has thrived with man made dwellings such as bridges and buildings like barns and garages, to attach their mud nests to.
Their natural nesting sites are cliff sides.
You can put up netting or a fake Owl to discourage them, or, you can enjoy the fact you are helping them as a species.
They eat many insects such as mosquitos and are a very beneficial species.
I don’t know where you live, but, most species of birds are protected by law, and that means that you can remove nests after the babies have fledged but it is illegal to destroy nests and nestlings.
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Some species of birds nest in the same place year after year, generation after generation. We have sparrows who nest in the eave of our porch roof. It’s a nice little protected ledge where it is hard for predators (like squirrels) to get to.
Kind of an aside – there was a Wawa near my school that had exactly this problem with the roofing of the structure. It was a serious problem, as it was found that a certain respiratory illness could be inhaled and acquired from the droppings that they were soiling the area with. Long story short, they had to tear the entire roofing fixture apart and research a specific roofing that wasn’t ideal for bird-nesting.
That insight may just be a way of saying that this may be harder to deal with than it may seem, ha. Might I suggest adopting a garage-dwelling cat?
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