Eggs Destroyed -Nest intact

[claire G.]

Last night either a House Wren or House Sparrow got into my nest and destroyed all 5 eggs. I found 4 of them on the ground…don’t know what happened to the 5th egg. My box is pole mounted, with a baffle and I also use a sparrow spooker!

The nest itself is intact. Will mama use it again or should I remove it so she’ll build a new one? So heartbreaking!!!

Thanks for any advice.

Claire G.

[TimC]

That is sad. Nature is wonderful and cruel. Are the nesting pair still hanging around?

I don’t have experience with this as I’ve never had a nest destroyed but there are folks here that will be able to help you out with some advice. If it were me I would just monitor the nest and see if they come back in a few days. Bluebirds know what to do.

Tim C. WI/MI border.

[claire G.]

Thanks Tim – yes the parents are still around. good suggestion to wait a few days and see what happens. This is my 3rd year of ‘raising’ BB babies….out of 8 nestings, two have been attacked by sparrows or wrens and one had a strange illness take over the entire brood right as they were due to fledge. I’m going to keep trying!!!! Claire

[tamsea]

Hi Claire. I had a similar experience this season. My main bluebird pair first brood died because it was cold the night they hatched and newly hatched babies can’t regulate their own temperatures. They tried again and a Wren got them, so now they are on their 3rd try.
In my experience bluebirds like cleaned out boxes. Mine usually don’t reuse a nest that failed. If I don’t clean out the nest they will move on to another box.
Do you have a second nestbox up?
You can wait a short time before cleaning out out but I wouldn’t wait long at all because they might move away to start another nest. If they aren’t going in the nestbox now that’s an indication. Honestly I would just clean it out. They like to build new nests.
But another thing to consider is what got those eggs? If it was a house sparrow usually you see the house sparrow on top of the box afterwards trying to lure a female in. If it was a house wren, I’m sorry, because they are so hard to battle. They’re native and protected so legally you can’t do anything but you can put up a Wren guard after the first egg is laid. A Wren guard hides the hole so a Wren doesn’t see it. But once a Wren has found a box and know the opening is there he will bypass the guard. But it can work if he hasn’t found that box.
Hope that helps.
A Wren guard can be as easy as a part of a show box I can give you more info on that tomorrow.

Tammy

[claire G.]

Thanks Tamesa! I do have a 2nd box I could use….worth trying. As far as using a wren guard, my house has a pointed/hinged roof….might have to get creative, or get another house! I really wish I knew which bird did this, but I don’t. I wrote to Bet Zimmerman Smith (of sialis.org) and she said I could keep the nest and just about 20 minutes ago, I saw Daddy go into the house and check things out…..that *could* be good news. I have a camera in that house and would NOT have a camera in the 2nd house….I guess I could manage one brood without a camera!!!

thanks for your input….I’ll update when I know more.

Claire

[claire G.]

I thought I would update everyone who has commented. First, thanks for your interest in my dilemma! I know how we love our Bluebirds!!!

Tammy’s suggestion about a new box was a good one. I have a 2nd box in my back yard. I was looking at it yesterday and shockingly, mama bluebird was already sitting on top of it! I have a mealworm feeding station close by and daddy was perched on top of that. A little while later, checked on the box, and it had an almost complete nest already built in it!!! Mama had been busy and I wasn’t paying attention! This morning she was busy adding more to the nest. I guess they really don’t want to use that old box. The only problem now is the location of the 2nd box isn’t good. It’s in a line of trees behind my house. I’ll have to trust they know what they are doing (I hope!). I’ll keep you updated!

[TimC]

Sad day today after returning from a weeks vacation. I took a look at my nest box in my yard and saw this…

I don’t know for certain, but prior to leaving a Wren occasionally landed on the box. His/her brood is in a nest box about 15 yards away from this one. I can’t say for certain but I believe that little turd bird may have killed the five hatchlings. Fortunately I have another nest box about 15 yards in the other direction. Prior to vacation there was no activity in the box. Today I found three nice blue eggs. So I think the pair will recover.

Now what to do with the Wren. They have seven hatchlings in their box. I will leave nature to take its course but it sure is tempting to evict the little turds.

Tim C. WI/MI border.

[phillyblues]

Really sad to see the destruction wrens have caused! All I can offer is that one of my tree swallow nestlings was killed by a wren early on so i put a makeshift wren guard up and it stayed away after that. All i did was take a thin piece of cardboard from a beercans case (relatively water resistant) and fold it over the front (screwed it to the top with a couple small scews) completely hiding the hole (idea from a video I found). The mom tres had to adjust her incoming flight a bit but she figured it out. Since then no sparrows or wren problems. I got 3 out of 5 babies out the door

[phillyblues]

This is the simple video I found very helpful

https://m.facebook.com/BackyardNaturePreserve/videos/keep-wrens-from-tossing-bluebird-eggs-out-of-bluebird-houses-easy-way-to-attach-/448704990191059/?locale=ms_MY

[tamsea]

@Tim. It looks like those babies have been dead for awhile. Can you tell if there was any peck marks on them? Could they have died from some other reason?
Usually wrens are the culprit when eggs are removed. And they can remove really young babies from the nest. I haven’t heard of them killing babies. Although I’m sure they could.
House sparrows on the other hand are known for both, dropping babies on the ground and killing.

If you use a Wren guard put sides on them too. You want to keep the Wren from finding the hole.
**And always take the Wren guard off when the babies are about ten days old. They need that entrance open so they don’t have problems fledging and by that age the Wren can’t remove the babies from the nest because they are too big.

Tammy

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