Barn swallows prefer as the name says, barns. But also stables, carports, houses with very wide eaves(over 1 metre) and similiar structures.
Barn swallows prefer shady places, safe from rain, wind and especially away from too much sun.
A south-east wall on a house with a wide eave, seems to attract the normally barn nesting birds to built a nest outside of a building.
Dark wooden structure(roof) and a light wall(either light wood or painted with a light colour(white or blue)) seems best for barn swallows.
This site offers artificial cups out of wood, but you also can make your own.
Barn swallow nest cups
Martins prefer the outside.
They prefer light wooden structures as roof in south east direction with a light wall. Dark wooden structures seem to scare many martins off, but some might have adapted to the artificial darkness and have curbed their fear of 'black holes' as long as the wall is painted in a light colour.
Martins mostly nest higher than barn swallows if the structure allows it.
Barn swallows
Like to breed with a bit of space between the nests. One meter, the view to the neighbour obscured by a beam or a board, makes them much more docile.
Otherwise they might get into territorial fights with their neighbours more often.
Martins
Breed in clusters, the more the merrier. You can attract martins easily with offering a couple of artificial nests close together
For martins, swallows and swifts are records available with the call of these birds to attract them to a nesting side.
The speakers should either be mounted near the nests so the birds find the nests easily, or should point to the nests so the voices are reflected by the wall and carry through the air
The birds react to high tones, so shift the balance to the overtunes and it might work better. Especially if you use mediocre free recordings from the internet.
How to build a martin/swallow nest
pics
Here you can see how plaster, sawdust, foil and boards(and screws) can make a decent nest.
Use normal plaster, mix it with fine sawdust(use a sieve to get out anything that is bigger than 2mm if neccessary).
Mix one cup sawdust and one cup plaster, putting crumbled charcoal into it to get a darker colouring.
Especially barn swallows prefer a slightly darker nest.
Use a quartered styrofoam ball as in the picture, two boards and foil as seen in the pictures and put plastermix on it, 2 centimetres thick.
You can make the mix more durable by using net like cloth or bandages like with a cast, putting it on the plaster and putting another layer of plaster on it.
Barn swallows like their nests more with some hay pressed on the outside of the nest, only barely covered with plaster to give it a bird-made look.
Let it dry, for a martin let free a small hole, for a barn swallow you can plaster it all up, let it dry for two days and than mount it to the board with small screws, use only the board in the back and put the nest 2 inches under the roof or a similiar structure so there is a small space for the birds to get into the nest.
They will close up the nest if there is too much space, don´t leave too much space, it makes it easier for predatores to break the mudpart of the nest and steal eggs.
The plaster is more durable and offers more protection.
As a last fix, use some brown and white paint to make 'baby-shit'markings on the rim of the nest
This will make it look as if others have already nested there and succeeded with their brood, making it more welcoming to the birds.
Same with martins, decorate the entrance with some white splatter-markings
Swallows may prefer nests with some small feathers as decoration in the nest cup, martins prefer nests clean and without added hay on the outside..don´t make the nest too smooth, leave bumps and ridges.
It offers more hold for tiny feet and looks more real to the birds.
Building material for birds
A pond, a lake, a river...that is fine for the birds, but unfortunally they might not offer the right material to build a nest.
If the ground is not with a high clay content, than there will no nests be built even with a perfect barn, stable or house side nearby.
But you can offer artificial mud puddles
Use a shallow pan if you don´t want a puddle in your garden, you can put the pan on a flat roof, like your garage where the birds are safer from predatores.
Mix clay up with some water, don´t make it to wet ..make it like cookiedough, put a cup of fine stonemeal in 1kg clay.
Use only stonemeal without added fertilizer and asbest fibre free. The extra minerals make a good adition to the clay.
Fill an inch of water in the pan so the handfulls of sticky clay can slowly dissolve and the birds can take the water-clay mix they desire, more watery or more sticky.
This is why the water needs to be shallow so the birds may venture in there, put some flat big stones in the water if they want to perch there.
Half a metre as diameter is the minimum for the birds, one metre is ideal.
A shallow bowl/pan near the clay pan with sterilized, finely ground eggshells or mineral powder/grit for birds will provide extra minerals for the birds, resulting in better egg shells, less premature breaks or drying out of the eggs because of a too thin shell.
The birds might also take to offered fine hay for their nest or other nesting material like natural cotton, not the cleaned up fibre but the fluffy balls straight from the fields, finely cut, cleaned! sheep wool.
The sheep wool needs to be cut because otherwise the brids may tangle in the long fibres and washing the wool is neccessary because of the insecticides used on sheeps which are on the wool and especially in the woolfat and will wander into the egg shell and may kill the embryo.
You can also order nesting material online if you desire, but with a bit of knowledge you can easily find that everywhere for some cents or for free.
If you have an old featherpillow, throw it in the laundry with only some soap as detergent, wash it, dry it, cut it open and offer the feathers as nesting material if you had planned to throw the old thing away.
Old cotton and wool socks are also a nice offer, cut up finely so no long fibres can make problems.
Please no synthetic fibres
Common Swifts
Common swifts like to breed next to each other, this is a birdhouse for four swift families, very simple to make.
The wood is natural, non treated, still rough wood, 2 centimetres thick and screwed together.
If you can only mount the birdhouse on a wall that is south/southwest, use thicker boards because they isolate better from the heat.
Paint the birdhouse white with non toxic paint and make an artificial nest.
An artificial nest is important for swifts because they only can use nesting material that they catch floating in the air.
A board with a hollow that hinders the eggs from rolling all over the place, will lead to a successfull breeding.
Otherwise the swifts need much time to collect enough material to make a safe nest to keep the eggs together.
The artificial nest should have a dent with 9,5 to 10 centimetres diameter at the bottom, not deeper than half an inch and the shallow edge diameter on top 13 centimetres to allow the short legged birds an easy climb out of and into the nest.
Swallows, martins and swifts will only take to a nesting area if the air corridor is free from trees obscurring it, they need to be able to look fully at their nesting ground.
A swifthouse some metres behind a tree on the housewall will see no swifts, as there will be no martins when the nestarea is hidden from them behind a high hedge or trees.
They have evolved to nest on cliff like structures, trees will keep them away even when the side is excellent in all other points.
Put any questions you have in the comment section
