Description
Great protection for your bluebirds, chickadees, tree swallows & more!
The wrong birdhouse baffle can lead to heartbreak. This isn’t just a one time thing – if you keep using the wrong baffle, it will be year-after-year of disaster.
The best way to ensure your birds are properly protected and thrive is to mount your nest box correctly and guard it with an appropriate baffle.
The stovepipe baffle is the best baffle style to protect birdhouses, but it must be at least 8 inches x 24 inches to work.
This 8 inch by 24 inch (8″ x 24″) baffle is known to protect against several predators, including snakes less than 3-4 feet, raccoons, cats, squirrels and more. It is important to know that taller baffles – 60 inches offer the most protection; however, those are not commercially available, and instead must be made. If you don’t have time or equipment to make your stovepipe baffle, an 8×24 inch baffle is still recognized as great protection.
List of species the 8″ x 24″ baffle protects against:
Raccoons, squirrels, even opossums will be tempted by eggs, nestlings and adult birds, but larger stovepipe baffles protect against these intrusions as well as other predators:
- cats
- chipmunks
- opossums
- raccoons
- snakes up to 3 feet long
- squirrels
Get the most out of your ultimate birdhouse baffle
In order for this baffle to be truly effective, it must wobble on the pole. The instability along with its length and width are the best ways to fully protect against intruders.
We also advise you to mount the baffle about 10-15 inches below the nest box.
Important baffle specifications to help you make sure it’s right for your pole and nest box:
- This style and size baffle is the best commercially available baffle out there to protect against raccoons, squirrels, cats, and some snakes (taller baffles of 60 inches must be made using duct pipe or bollard guards).
- Made of UV protected, weather durable powder coated metal.
- Adjustable to fit various pole sizes – can be adjusted to fit a .5 inch pole up to a 1.375 inch pole diameter.
- Comes with an easy to use mounting bracket
- We recommend using a little bit of duct tape under the mounting bracket to minimize slippage.
Consider this about snakes!
Don’t think you have snakes in your yard? Think again. So often because people haven’t observed snakes, they don’t believe they’re out there – not until they discover one in a nest box, having eaten the eggs or nestlings.
Not all snakes enter nest boxes. Rat snakes are the most common snake found in nest boxes. They are not poisonous. They, and most other snakes are native to North America and should not be harmed. Other native snakes are not well known for entering nest boxes, so check the range.
An important note: This baffle will only protect against smaller snakes. Larger snakes, 3.5 – 5 feet long or longer will be able to get past this barrier. For larger snakes, you’ll want to craft your own baffle that close to 60 inches tall and an 8 inch diameter. This can be done using duct pipe and a pipe cap or hardware wire from hardware stores, or using a bollard guard.
Baffle resources:
We have a detailed article about different predators that might invade your nest boxes and how to protect against them. And this article goes into more detail about baffle selection as well as other accessories that can guard your nest box even better.
