There are a lot of different baffles available for your birdhouse, and it can be challenging deciding on the best one that will offer your birds the most protection.
Our experience has shown that stovepipe baffles at least 8 inches by 24 inches or longer is the best at protecting your birdhouse. Taller baffles at 60 inches offer great protection. But it is important to understand why and know about other protective accessories.
A stovepipe baffle, also sometimes called a torpedo baffle, is a long, cylindrical baffle system. Some styles are flat on both ends, while others have a bit of a torpedo head.
In this article, we’ll mostly be calling it the stovepipe baffle, and will refer mostly to the flat style.
We’ll detail the specific dimensions to look for in another section of this article. But if you’re debating between a cone-shaped baffle, or a cylindrical stovepipe baffle system, we encourage you to choose the stovepipe style baffle and will help you choose the right version.
Why the stovepipe baffle system is the best
The stovepipe style baffle protects against cats, racoons, squirrels, mice and other animals from intruding in the nest. Furthermore, if chosen correctly, it can better protect against snakes.
Because of its round, cylindrical structure, slick surface and wide circumference, the stovepipe baffle is an excellent baffle system. If they are wide and long enough, they can also protect against snakes because snakes will crawl up inside of a wider baffle rather than around it.
One important thing about these baffles that we will mention repeatedly is to make sure your baffle wobbles. It cannot be completely fixed to the pole. Think of it sort of like a bell.
Even when it comes to stovepipe baffles, they’re not all going to offer the same level of protection. In order to get the best protection, you want to select a wide and long baffle.
Important dimensions
Dimensions are important when shopping for a birdhouse baffle. While four and six inch stovepipe or torpedo baffles can protect against intruding mammals, they won’t provide as much protection against snakes.
Even if you don’t think you have snakes in your area, there is a likelihood that you actually do.
The Sialis website suggests an 8” x 24” baffle system at minimum to get full protection for your birds. This is definitely a good start, and is a pretty popular choice. However, experienced nest monitors have reported discovering larger snakes even with these baffles.
Some nest monitors suggest having an 8” baffle that is 4-5 feet tall. The downside to these longer systems is that they aren’t commercially available.
| 4” x 24” baffle | 6” x 24” baffle | 8” x 24” | 8″ x 60″ |
| Not recommended. Does not offer the best protection. | May offer some protection against predatory mammals but not snakes. | Recommended by some nest box monitors. A longer baffle can offer even greater protection | Best protection, provides protection against larger snakes. |
The best baffle that is commercially available is an 8 inch x 24 inch baffle. However, if you are making your own baffle using duct pipe, we recommend you make it 8 inches by 48-60 inches.
You can also make taller baffles using a bollard guard*. These are 7 inches in diameter by 60 inches. With this, a hole saw and iron hanger straps, you can get this mounted to your pole.
It’s also a good idea to reinforce the baffle mount with electrical or duct tape underneath to prevent slippage.
Where to find stovepipe baffles
Nest Hollow carries the best commercially available baffle. They can also be found on Amazon*.
The downside with commercially available stovepipe baffles is that they’re expensive. However, the price can still be considered worth it, especially for a home system because it’s less fuss and significantly easier to install. If you buy the poles that go with it, installation takes less than five minutes.
Note: PVC baffles are not as recommended.
If you’re looking for installation ease, you can get the pole (with auger and mounting bracket), baffle, and birdhouse for around $150. Definitely pricey, but worth it if you want to save time or don’t know how to make your own baffle.
Find it here:
Find it on Amazon*
- Bluebird house – $45 – $55
- Pole kit with auger and mounting bracket* – $50 – $55
- 8″ x 24″ Stovepipe baffle – $50- $60
- Bollard Guard – $60
You can also build your own stovepipe baffle using duct pipe from a hardware store. These systems are extremely affordable, and you can easily find a 5-foot pipe (ideal length).
The trouble is that you’ll need some sort of cap or top to mount your baffle. Some birders use hardware wire. They cut it to fit inside the baffle using wire snips. A hole is cut in the middle to slide the baffle down the pole to the desired spot. Bird landlords will use different mounting techniques. Because of the variety, it’s better to detail that in a separate article, one with better pictures to really show how to do this.
Another type of cap would be to buy the duct cap that comes with the pipe. They’ll be found in the same area of the hardware store. The cap is placed over the top of the baffle, a small starter hole can be drilled into its center with a titanium drill bit. After the hole is drilled, you can use tin snips. Cut an X with the snips, and bend the flanges upward so the baffle can slide over the pole. Again, full installation information deserves its own article.
You can also use a metal hole saw to drill a large enough hole to slide the baffle over the pole.
When installing any kind of baffle, make sure it wobbles.
One thing to consider, if you’re trying to save money, is that if you are only putting together one pole system and baffle but don’t have the equipment mentioned (snips, hardware wire, even gloves), buying the individual equipment will add up. And in that case, it might be better to buy the commercially available system.
Stovepipe baffle placement
Place your baffle 8-12 inches from the bottom of your box. If using a 4 or 5 foot long baffle, it’s best to at least have it about 8-12 inches from the ground. Obviously due to the uncertainty of terrain, positioning it just right above the ground can be a little tricky. At best, you want some space between the ground and the baffle.
Some trail monitors even have their baffles touch the ground. But remember, wobbling is key, and if it’s too close to the ground it can’t wobble.
Ultimately, our advice is based on experience and in communicating with a network of trail monitors. However, optimizing your baffle will take trial and error. There is never going to be a perfect way. There will only be best practices.
Conical baffle
A conical baffle is one of the more classic baffle systems that you tend to see on bird feeders. Wide conical baffles do a decent job of protecting against squirrels and other mammals intruding on your nest.
However, nest box landlords have found them to be less reliable on their own. When paired with a stovepipe baffle or Krueger snake trap, they can help reinforce each other.
That said, if this is the only baffle you have, it’s a great start until you can get something more protective set up.
Other guards
Cavity bird landlords can get obsessive about protecting their birds. Part of the reason for this obsession is after witnessing some tragedy or hearing of a tragedy within their network of nest monitors. In this section we detail some birdhouse guards. It will be an abridged version since each of these require a lot more details to help you decide what is right for you and when to apply each of these guards.
Noel guard
A noel guard is a four-sided, cage-like perimeter guard going around a birdhouse entrance hole made of a wire mesh (hardware wire) that protects against invading mammals such as cats, raccoons and squirrels.
Learn more about Noel guards by clicking here
The trick with the mesh is that the clipped ends of the hardware wire will point up and out, almost like barbs.
While the Noel guard can protect your birdhouse from predatory mammals, it won’t protect against snakes.
We don’t recommend using this as an alternative to a baffle because it may not offer full protection and some birds have trouble with these. Instead, it can be a good option to use in conjunction with a smaller baffle.
A word of warning: some birds do not take well to the Noel guard. You will need to monitor your birdhouse to see if it creates any obstacles or deters your birds. We also only recommend installation after the first egg is laid.
Krueger mesh trap
A Krueger mesh trap offers protection from snakes. It uses a wide metal ring as the base with mesh (garden netting) gathered around it forming a mesh cone or a sort of hoop skirt type appearance. The mesh is bunched up at the top end. Snakes end up tangled in the mesh, preventing them from going up the pole and getting into your bird boxes.
This type of trap is usually used for taller poles like Purple Martin house poles. It may also be used by Northern Flicker landlords, but isn’t as widely used on shorter poles used for bluebird and chickadee houses. The Krueger mesh trap should only ever be used as a last resort!
It is important to have high-monitoring when using these traps. Snakes are native and important predators in our ecosystem. If they are left in the Krueger trap, they will die. Watch your trap, and release snakes after they have been caught. Do not kill snakes caught in the trap or leave them to die.
Hole reducers or hole guards
Hole reducers are usually made of metal and fit around the entrance hole to prevent hole widening and larger birds accessing the nest.
For instance, a 1 ⅛ – inch hole reducer can protect chickadees from invasive house sparrows (but not invasive Eurasian tree sparrows). Using a chickadee hole reducer can help them maintain a nest.
Sometimes what happens is two different native bird species will be interested in the same box. Let’s say the chickadees, who are much smaller, get to the box first and start building a nest, using the hole reducer can prevent bluebirds from later evicting them.
Wren guards
Wren guards help prevent house wrens from evicting your resident bluebirds or chickadees by hiding the entrance hole.
We do need to point out, though, that house wrens are native. You cannot remove their nests, nor can you trap or harm them. And it is important to let all of our native birds thrive.
However, house wrens can wreak havoc on a nest box nest. If you’ve checked on a nest and discovered a hole pecked into your bird’s eggs, you can bet it was likely a house wren who did it (Carolina wrens are no threat to cavity nesting birds).
Sometimes they build their nests over nests with eggs or even on top of live nestlings, which later die as a result.
Because of these issues, installing a wren guard can protect your nesting birds. When doing this, make sure you do not put the wren guard up until after the first egg is laid.
Birdhouse bird guardian
Birdhouse bird guardians are tube-like accessories that fit around the birdhouse entrance hole and prevents raccoons, squirrels, cats and other predatory mammals from invading the nest.
These accessories are inexpensive and offer some good protection. However, your birds might not be as enthused about these. Bluebirds can be a little more tolerant, but you want to make sure they’re bonded to the nest and uninstall if you see trouble.
Installing something like this for chickadees is iffy. Chickadees are a little more skittish about nest alterations. We would recommend a large stovepipe baffle and a 1 ⅛ inch hole reducer for them.
Titmice can also be skittish. If you have titmice nesting in your birdhouse, it’s better to use a baffle system for protection.
*Article contains affiliate links.
