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Hey Brenda
Super late on this post not even sure if you are still around .. but I’m also in Ontario. Courtney! – Hopefully we run into each other hereHey all,
I too was on the old YUKU site and had to get ahold of these lovely ladies (cher?) to help me get my passwords and stuff back. I dont even remember what year I started here I think it was 2009 which would make this ten years!I’m Courtney, from Ontario Canada (about an hour west of Toronto.) I found this site when I moved to a house that had a bunch of old nest boxes filled with “stuff” – which I later learned was HOSPS and Wrens dummy nests! this site has been an amazing resource for me, and a great way to connect with others who enjoy birds, nature like I do. I’m an all around animal lover, two horses, cats, dogs – they all tend to find me, just like the blues and TRES.
Currently hosting a set of paired boxes for the 2019 season, and looking forward to meeting more of you and giving updates. I tend to disappear for awhile, and then when I see pretty birds its a reminder to come visit my birding family!
Hello everyone! I was a member of the old forum ages ago, and I learned a lot of what I know about hosting bluebirds from you all way back when. I live in north central Ohio and have had a trail of 14 nest boxes on my property for about 25 years now. (ok saying that just made me feel old! lol) I recently purchased the BBF1 mealworm feeder and saw that it was designed by you guys, and it got me looking up the bluebird nut site again. I had trouble registering for the forum, so thank you Cher for helping me get back on board here.
Welcome back, Jamie! Fourteen boxes is a bunch! I hope you are enjoying success this year.
Gin
Atlanta, GAHello,
My name is Therese and I live in southeast Michigan. I’ve been birding for about 20 years but never saw bluebirds until last year. This February they were back at the suet feeder so we decided to put out a nestbox in the front yard, which is the most open space we have. The bluebirds built a nest in May and four eggs were laid, with incubation starting on June 6th. Unfortunately the eggs did not hatch. I carefully candled them with a flashlight on day 20 of incubation, and an expert confirmed that they were not viable. At her recommendation, I did not return the eggs to the nest. The bluebirds realized the eggs were gone and left together a week ago. I know the male is still around because I saw him twice in the past week and heard him call for his mate yesterday. The nest is still there, and I’m hoping they’ll try again, although it’s looking unlikely. I’m trying to understand why the eggs were not viable, and if the location of the nestbox was a factor. They appeared to be half full of yellow yolk. Were they not fertilized or did she not incubate enough? During her incubation, I observed her flying out any time a person walked down the street, sometimes two or three times in 15 minutes. Also, we ‘ve had wren and house sparrow issues, but I found solutions and they did not damage the eggs. I’ll talk more about that in another post. If they don’t come back I’m considering moving the nestbox to the side of my house away from street traffic, although it is a narrow strip of land. I’m hoping to find out more information on this site to be able to give these birds the proper environment to have a successful nesting season.
Therese
Welcome to the forum Therese! How disappointing that your eggs did not hatch. It does sound like it is in a busy spot. I don’t have any experience with raising bluebirds in a spot that gets human traffic like that. Maybe someone else here can advise you on that front. Crossing my fingers that you get another nesting.
Therese, welcome here!
There are so many reasons for hatch failure. Among them are the age and health of the female, fertilizing failure, poor incubation, too hot or too cold temp in the box. It’s anybody’s guess.
You could move your box and see what the birds think of that. It’s very odd for a female to flush because of human traffic. Most times I can walk right up to a box, make noise and see a bird fly only when I open a box. Maybe this female is extremely skittish and moving the box would help her.
Gin
Atlanta, GAHello, My name is Mike, Longtime breeder of canaries (not anymore unfortunately) and I seem to have found my way here. Thanks to Cher for helping me out. I’m from St. Louis and first ‘discovered” bluebirds in my area earlier in the pandemic. I was working from home in March/April and happened to look up and see 2 of them at my suet feeders. I had NEVER seen bluebirds around before! The bluebird is Missouri’s state bird.
Started looking for any bit of information that I could find and here I am.
I have the ERV BB1 feeder and built a Gilbertson Mealworm feeder. Will begin working on a nest box or 2 this weekend.Mike S
Hi, Mike and WELCOME. I’m also a Missourian, live in Mid Missouri and have been bluebirding going on 13 years now. We live in a rural subdivision where each house lot is at least one acre, and lots of 2 acres and ours is 5 acres (only about 2.5 for our actual yard). I, like you, had never seen a bluebird until we had a new neighbor move in across the road and “brought her bluebirds with her”. I immediately put up two bluebird houses and had 2 or 3 nests that first year, and then I was hooked.
After about 5 years I put together a Bluebird video presentation and went to different places in town and surrounding towns, talking about our bluebirds. This was most rewarding. It took me almost a year to get photos, put them into proper format, etc. Since I am “over 70 years” old (???) about 3 years ago I decided to give up the roaming and just enjoy my blues in my own yard. They stay with me all winter long and enjoy the mealworms (in the spring/summer) and my peanut butter suet in the winter.
Please visit our “bible” website, which is www/sialis.org – tons and tons of information here. Good luck with your nestbox and the nesting season. P.S. Glad to hear you are building your own box – sure you have researched the specs needed – we have built everyone of our boxes, which are numerous, as well as all the predator controls needed.
P.S. Guess you know when you post again you need to go to a “new” post area and not use this introduction area with your regular posts. GREAT TO HAVE YOU HERE!
Hi,
My name is Chris, I’m here in southwestern Ohio and I’ve been interested in bluebirds since the late 1980’s. I currently have a flock of 6 bluebirds that are visiting regularly, I’ve convinced them to eat dried mealworms. I use the BBF1, it does do a good job of keeping starlings out, but they rock the cage back and forth and shake the mealworms out. I’m wondering if i post mount it or use a counterweight if that might help.
I do use the deluxe repeating sparrow trap, works well for starlings when baited with peanut suet, im trapping 5 or 6 at each setting.
This past year ive had more success bluebirding, i attribute that to working from home because of the COVID. I’ve been able to more closely monitor boxes, run off predators, man the traps, and currently feed the birds.
Welcome, Chris. Sounds like you are quite experienced in bluebirding. I, too use a cage feeder for feeding – in fact I have two and there are tons of birds every morning and late afternoon eating my suet. I will switch over to live mealworms later in March when it warms up. I take it your feeder is hanging – don’t have any ideas on keeping larger birds from tipping the cage – I have both of mine attached to my back deck (located at back of home) railings – I whistle for them and they come in groves. All the birds (bluebirds, white-crowned sparrows, juncos, (and of course HOSP) come and have both bowls inside the feeder cleaned up in about 5 or 10 minutes. And yes, those starlings and other larger birds try hard to get in – once in a while a thin one will wiggle its way inside and they have trouble getting out. I keep pretty close eye on the feeders after the food is there. I do use the VanErt inside box trap for HOSP but have never had much luck with the ground traps – tried lots of times and always catch the wrong birds.
P.S. Just had a thought about your mealworms being shaken out – If you use a glass or plastic bowl inside the feeder instead of just on the bottom of the feeder, the worms should stay inside maybe???? I use some old glass ashtrays – worms cannot climb out and they are heavy enough to stay put inside the holder which is mounted to the middle of the cage. Good luck.Thanks. I do notice they visit late in the afternoon, and there are fewer starlings around at that time. I can whistle and they show up from across the street somewhere. I do that several times a day if i am at home.
I had good luck with the repeating ground trap from sparrowtraps.net. The more recent version of this trap will catch starlings (hole in wood is larger); i use suet for bait. I was trapping 6 a day when the snow was on the ground.
The best attractant to these traps is actually another bird – so if you catch a HOSP with the in house trap, place it in the ground cage trap, it might help draw in more HOSPs.
I do have a blue glass tray i can put in the cage feeder. I currently have a Nova mealworm heater in there, plan was to feed live worms, but i quit that when i convinced them to eat dried mealworms instead. The mealworm heater doesnt quite sit flush, so its easier to knock the worms out. If the glass tray doesn’t solve it, i can mount the cage feeder on a post.
The birds are checking out houses, so i have cleaned them out and made them ready.
Hi everyone
My name is Matt and I live in central Indiana, in a suburb of Indianapolis. I grew up in the northern part of the state, and my dad was interested in bluebirds growing up. He had his first successful nestbox last year, after many years of trying. Growing up in a rural area, I was very surprised to see bluebirds around my home, since it is in more of an urban/suburban setting. After a bunch of reading on bluebirds, I built a hanging mealworm feeder house with plexiglass as well as a NABS style nestbox for them last winter and put both out in January. I’m excited that a pair has chosen my nestbox on my first attempt at bluebirding, and there are 3 eggs in the nest thus far. I have eliminated many sparrows this spring, which I assume is a contributing factor in the blues staying. I’m looking forward to learning about and watching the birds!Hi, Matt and WELCOME! Great that you have eggs already on your first try at bluebirding. Also good that you know about the House Sparrows, which do considerable damage to the population of bluebirds. Please read up on all the deterrents you can use to help keep your eggs and babies safe. The webside http://www.sialis. org. is a terrific website, with lots of helpful information.
You can keep everyone posted on your progress and ask for help when needed – just need to start a new thread (post) other than this “Welcome” one. Good luck.
Hello, I am Molla Donaldson. We live in coastal North Carolina near the SC border. A pair of bluebirds came to our feeder this spring, and I learned they like mealworms, so I ordered a bag which they ate. They built a nest in a bluebird nest we had put up in our backyard on the marsh several years ago. They nested and raised a brood, but have now both parents and young have disappeared. We cleaned out the nest put up a snake baffle and put up another nest a way away, but I have not seen them since. It is now late June. I came to this forum to try to learn why they have disappeared. We have two cats but they never bother birds.
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