Bluebirds visiting the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks will soon have new places to call home.

Gerald Klingaman, director of operations for the Fayetteville garden, will be conducting a building birdhouses workshop Feb.

1. He says participants will be building bluebird boxes because there are many bluebirds around the garden, and houses for them are needed.

“They don’t have a place to nest,” he says.

Klingaman says he was already planning to create the boxes, so the staff decided to make it into a workshop. There will be cut-out materials, and children and adults involved in the workshop will learn how to assemble them. He says he hopes everyone will be able to take home a bluebird box for themselves as well, but that depends on how many people participate. There are not many people signed up so far, he notes.

Pine will be used to create the birdhouses, and he says these will take about 30 minutes to assemble.

An important aspect in creating a bluebird house is the hole size, Klingaman says.

“If the hole size is too small,bluebirds can’t get in it. If it’s too big, other birds can get in,” he says.

He adds that the placement of the box is significant as well. Bluebirds like to be “at the edge of the woods looking out on a grassy area.” He says he has a bluebird box placed on the side of the yard at his home that looks across the lawn, and bluebirds seem to like it. The boxes also need to be about four feet off the ground.

Workshop participants will also get instructions to take home to create a birdhouse on their own.

Whats Up, Pages 27 on 02/01/2013