I’ve lived in my house 25 years. By now, I know where I am likely to find birds nests. Every so often one will surprise me–but for the most part, there are several trees–small trees–and shrubs where I know that I am likely to find birds needs if I just pay attention.
I will always find at least one, if not two, American robin’s nest in my American dogwood (cornus florida). Interestingly enough, they also like the Japanese maple and the japanese holly–so it’s not an “american” thing.
I will also find various other birds nesting in these topiary blue spruce we have. We have several (don’t blame me–I inherited them). They stay because they birds like them.
The japanese holly is another inherited shrub that I tolerate because it’s good for the birds. As I mentioned in the last post, it’s wonderful shelter for them (it doesn’t berry–I don’t think we have enough sun) and they do nest in it so I am not likely to remove it even though it is a bit of an overgrown monstrosity.
As for other nesting places, I was foolish enough to think that you needed nest boxes. Silly me. We must have at least 10 pair of nesting birds on the property at any one time all summer long. I attribute that to providing habitat (and of course, no pesticides).
You saw 2 nest boxes in the dogwood. One is pretty much decorative. The other is a working wren house and it’s used every year. I fledge ( actually the wren parents fledge) at least 2 broods of baby wrens each year. And they get mighty irate if I try to garden underneath.
But the trees and shrubs are the true nesting stars. My bird population relies heavily upon them to perpetuate their future.
Gardendaze 
Where I lived in town until 2006, starlings nested in the attic, pigeons tried to nest on top of the refrigerator, and some sort of house finch nested in the shower, and started a family before I found them there.
We do have starlings here but they must be using someone else’s attic. In fact, if anything is likely to use our attic, it’s squirrels or bats, or sometimes yellow jackets. House sparrows perpetually try to nest on top of our outdoor lighting but they must be a little too steep. I see them flying up there with nesting material but they can never manage to make it work.
Karla
Reblogged this on Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog.