In my opinion a ceramic house would get way too hot to be used for nesting birds. If you've ever left any kind of glass or ceramic item in the sun for any length of time you can feel just how hot it would get. A 3/4" thick wooden house with ventaltion mounted on a slick metal pole with a pretador baffle is the saftest.

No, no , no. If the eggs don't fry the babies will! If you would like to host Blues please read www.sialis.org! Good Luck! :)

Agreed, stick with wood!

Yep, decorative nestboxes are for just that, decoration...not suitable normally for actually housing birds. Wooden is the way to go, I agree ceramic would get way too hot.

Donna

Not just ceramic, but metal houses are a no, no as well! There is a lovely garden and gift center where I live, and they carry some adorable metal bird houses....The owner is a friend of mine and I asked her to please let customers know that these houses are NOT for nesting!!!!!!

Thanks all,when I saw the house I thought "how cute' but I just knew it wasn't right so I didn't buy it. I need to find a hole minimizer to keep sparrows out

You can find hole reducers at WBU. Just remember anything small enough to keep house sparrows out will also keep bluebirds out since they are bigger than a house sparrow.

One of the best defenses against house sparrows is to use a sparrow spooker which is put on the box after the first egg is layed.