The back of the house and back of the roof are even on this birdhouse. The bicycle gear is just a big flat round gear with lots of little open areas inside it. This one happens to have 3 holes in it. I just screwed it right to the back. Now that I know how to post, I'll start doing pics of all sides. Linda

meredith, I have a fairly young garden, so none of my shrubs are large enough to nest in yet. So a rose that would grow quickly into something that could provide a site for nesting would be great. I have a Honeysuckle Vine that is being used for a nest and that's it. What is a 'woods-eating monster rose' ?? [g] I'm looking for a very large rose that would also provide a screen of my neighbor's yard. I saw this photo of Cecile Brunner and this is the effect I would like to achieve. I also wonder if that is growing on it's own or on some support. Any thoughts? I wonder how much square footage a rose like that would need at ground level? yorkrose, Pyracantha have such a presence in the fall and winter. I've only seen them trained on a trellis that didn't seem like they would make good nesting sites. Was yours left on it's own? Rosa eglanteria is very pretty! I imagine any rose I try to grow as large as the above photo will need support of some kind. I have a Stockade fence in the area where the rose will grow and I wouldn't want it to come down from the weight of the rose. John Cabot is pretty athenainwi, I was looking for something a little larger. What kind of bird is nesting in it? buford, that Reve d'Or looks like a size I am looking for. I love Noisettes, but I don't think they are as hardy here. I was thinking that birds would like small hips like meredith suggested. Surprised that they would eat rugosa hips. I wonder which birds eat those. Lady Hillingdon is very pretty and I see it repeats. That is something that would be important for me because I want such a large rose, it won't really fade into the background when it is not in bloom. Olga, Yolande d'Aragon is a pretty rose. I haven't seen a photo of the plant but I did find your post describing yours. I am wondering if the large upright stiff canes would work for what I want. I couldn't find a photo of Vesuvius. Westerland and WBaffin are pretty. Couldn't find a photo of Bridal Wreath. I don't use insecticides or fungicides. I'm an organic grower. Thanks for all the ideas!

Like all orioles, they are very loud :-) The first time I ever saw one, I was living in N. Indiana. We had a very long one story ranch style house in the country on 5 acres, and tons of wildlife. I had cedar bushes in front of my master bedroom windows, and the bedroom was situated at the furthest most northern corner of the house. I had hung up a humming bird feeder there, so I could watch the Ruby Throated Hummingbird, which I had never seen before (having been born and raised in S. California). I was in the kitchen one morning, and had all the windows open in the house. The kitchen was at the exact opposite end of our house. All of a sudden, I could hear a bird singing it's heart out, VERY loudly. I had a thought that maybe a bird had actually gotten into the house it was so loud. I started following the sound, and ended up walking the entire length of our house to the master bedroom, and there was a gorgeous Baltimore Oriole sitting on the hummingbird feeder, singing his big ole heart out. Our Hooded Orioles here in S. California also have a beautiful song, but mostly, they make this territorial sound, or a lot of chattering. They love the oriole and hummingbird feeders I put out, as well as our Giant Bird of Paradise white flowers. So, we have tons of them in our yards due to perfect nesting areas and great eats! Sadly though today, I found a juvenile Black Headed Grossbeak dead under my kitchen window. I wasn't sure what it was at first, since the juveniles do not sport totally black heads. But, I had an adult male at my suet cake this morning, and I remembered that yesterday a bird hit our upstairs laundry room window extremely hard (as in unlikely to survive hard). I couldn't find any sign of a dead bird yesterday, but found the little guy this morning. I don't see the Grossbeaks that often at my feeders, and thought they were more migrating through, but guess I must have had a nest in my yard. So sad to lose one of the babies. Patty S.

No. Not a deformed beak I don't think. We have tons of California Thrashers here (the bane of my fruit and fig trees!), and this didn't look like a Thrasher. Head was blackish, beak was much thicker and black, not brown. I have never seen this bird before, so I'm thinking it's a visitor, flying through. The bill looks like a Magpie's bill - thick, black, longer, and a curved slightly downward. But thank you all for trying. Anyone else care to venture a guess? Patty S. This post was edited by hoosierquilt on Fri, Feb 6, 15 at 13:45