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It’s my third season as a bluebird landlord. Before my first season I read everything I could find about their nesting habits. Two things stuck out for me when locating the nest boxes. One was “pairing” nest boxes a few feet apart. The theory was that after a pair of bluebirds and a pair of tree swallows would fuss about with each other about where to nest one pair would finally adopt a nest and then the other pair would accept the other box and then go about their business. So for the last two seasons, and the beginning of this season, I located some of my trail boxes in pairs about ten or fifteen yards apart. Recently, I was about to declare pairing as a waste of time as my first two seasons I ended up with at least one vacant box in each pair. And some paired boxes were not used at all. Then about a week ago I discovered full occupancy in one paired location. One box with a pair of blues and four eggs, the other with a pair of Tree Swallows with five eggs. They seem to be getting along during my short visits.
The other surprise has to do with locating nest boxes in an “ideal location”. When friends or neighbors ask about where to put a nest box I give the usual answer… near a mowed field, away from the woods, a few places to perch while hunting, etc. This spring I began building a garage/shop on my property where once there was a small open mowed field. I live in a very wooded area and have been blessed with bluebirds in a box on my garden fence on the side of this field each of the last two years. I was apprehensive about my blues this spring since the nest box is about 15 feet from the back of the garage wall. From heavy equipment excavating, bringing in fill, building concrete forms and now banging walls and trusses together and the normal amount of cussing I had little hope they would take up residence again. To compensate I’ve given immediate neighbors nest boxes for their yards and when I would see a pair flitting about in my yard I hoped they were using the neighbor’s nest boxes. Yesterday I was working up on the top back gable wall and happened to look over the wall and saw a blue streak fly from near the box up to a utility wire nearby. Curious, I pulled out my Wi-Fi endoscope and took a peek. I was surprised to see a beautifully built bluebird nest with four bright blue eggs! I guess the point of me telling this story is if you or a friend are hesitant about siting a bluebird nest box in a not so perfect site just do it. You might get a nice surprise!
I’d love to hear your stories of successful, or not, locations that are not normal, ideal sites.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
I guess my current and biggest example of this is I have 2 pairs of bluebirds nesting 100ft apart and within view of each other. That’s not unheard of in the South where bluebirds are plentiful but up here in NW Ohio bluebirds will only nest about 300 ft away from each other. The only exception is if it isn’t within sight of each other, like one in the front of my house and one in the back.
I have boxes paired and it works most of the time. I have mine about 20ft apart.
Are you worried about your bluebird box on your garden fence. I would be afraid that eventually a raccoon or snake will cause havoc.I agree Bluebirds will nest anywhere. But sometimes it doesn’t work out well for them. Like my daughter’s treed yard was great at first until House Wrens took over. And now it really isn’t safe for them there. Now there’s a pair in her neighbors mailbox slot. It’s working but definitely not safe.
Tammy
I have thought of posting this before concerning the resilience of nesting Bluebirds. To Tim’s point, the video below if anyone is interested is of the Florida Bluebird Society annual meeting (it is posted publicly on their website). At about 1 hour 3 minutes in, the presenter shows construction workers at a trench putting in cable or something, with a nest box visible right next to the trench. The bluebirds carried on during the construction and produced 5 fledglings.
Code: Fhq4*gJU (enter this after clicking the link)
- Ira / Coastal NW Florida
Interesting. They are truly tolerant of human activities, especially after eggs are laid.
Tammy… I wasn’t worried about snakes and racoons before you replied. Now I’m not so sure. : (
I know what you mean by the easy climb up the chain link fence. I wanted to say we only have Garter and Pine (Fox) snakes here but I looked up native snakes in the UP (I’m as good as in the UP being a stones throw away from the Menominee River border) and o-boy! Now I know we have more than two varieties. I haven’t had any eggs disappear so far in two complete nesting seasons but I can’t say for sure I haven’t had hatchlings grabbed by snakes. When I report nesting production to BRAW I usually take my last count of hatchlings and “assume” that they all fledged. I don’t think there’s any way to know if they all flew the coop since I visit at most once or twice a week.
Racoons… I know they are around. I don’t see them as they are mostly nocturnal. And we don’t really get “raiding parties” of racoons like I’ve seen in urban areas, campgrounds, etc. I actually have no problems with House Sparrows. They are common in Iron Mountain in the city but very uncommon a few miles away in the sticks. So I don’t deploy Sparrow spookers, baffles and traps to eliminate the threat. I read about all those deterants but have had no noticable predation of my blues. Lucky I guess. I will keep my eyes open!
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Sorry about worrying you. LOL
Yes, I don’t think that we have many snake problems either here in NW Ohio. In the south landlords are always finding rat snakes in their boxes and martin gourds. I know we do have rat snakes but the baffle seems to stop them here. And when I’ve a nestbox without a baffle I haven’t had predation but I try really hard to put them on every nestbox pole. Raccoons can be an issue for us northerners, though. They are always scavenging for food. I’m not judging you. I have 2 poles at home out of 9 that don’t have a baffle right now. And one on the trail.I’ll try to find a link to a video with a raccoon digging inside a nestbox. I’ve seen it but just am not sure whether I can find it again.
Tammy
Another “paired” nest box resulted in TS and BB nests near each other. I do believe I’ll continue to pair boxes after this season’s experience.
So far this season… 35 nest boxes on two trails plus our neighborhood
Nine pair of BB’s nesting
34 eggs
16 hatchlings
5 fledgedAbout the same number of Tree Swallow nests and of course the little stinkers have continued to fill unused boxes with sticks. About three Wren pairs nesting.
Yeah, we start late and finish late in the summer so I expect more numbers by August.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Paired box update…
Two boxes are about 15 yards from each other in a closed fly ash landfill on one of my trails. On May 30th I discovered one nest box had five BB eggs, today 5 hatchlings looking like they are soon to fledge. The other box on May 30th was empty. On June 24th it had a new nest and one white egg. Today it has four white BB eggs.
This is unusual for bluebirds I’m told. However, I might be wrong about the white eggs being bluebirds. They are in a bluebird style nest and are the size of a bluebird egg. In the past two seasons I have had several pairs laying white eggs. We’ll see what develops. I’m wondering if the first pair was settled in with their brood and just ignored the other pair that began nesting. Interesting part is there are at least two other empty nest boxes about 100 yards away in the same field.
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Sialis says 4-5% of bluebirds lay white eggs.
The paired box situation is interesting. Are there no hard and fast rules with bluebirds?
- Ira / Coastal NW Florida
…Are there no hard and fast rules with bluebirds?
Only the Bluebirds know! Haha…
WI/MI Border, about 100 miles north of Green Bay
Tim C. WI/MI border.
Tim: I’m sure you are right and it’s bluebird eggs. You know the shape and slight tint of Tree Swallow eggs. I always like to see the white eggs.
AIH “That’s right about white eggs. Those females will lay white eggs throughout their life.
No hard and fast rules. The saying is “they don’t read the bluebird books” or something like that. It’s really much more clever sounding than that. LOLTammy
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