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I had never identified this species before. Supposedly they are common from the dry part of Texas and westward, so I must have seen them plenty of times but just wrote them off as another LBJ (Little Brown Job). When you get a good look at them you notice the yellow belly and the crest. According to what I have read they feed in a similar manner as bluebirds, sitting on a perch then swooping down to the ground to grab a bug. I haven’t seen them hunt, they spend most of their time on the slope facing away from my house.
This is weird because I haven’t seen any bluebirds here in southern California, either. I had a good batch last year, the first time that I got westerns to move into one of my boxes. This year, zilch. Some flycatchers moved in last week.
We had rain, rain, rain, long past the normal rainy season. There seem to be plenty of bugs.
That’s a birdbath. The water is a big deal right now with the heat. Sometimes we get congregations of finches, or bluebirds, scrub jays, or mixtures of whoever happens by. They are pretty well not aggressive with each other; everybody needs a drink. Sometimes ravens stop by. They are so gigantic they take over the entire joint. I don’t mind the ravens except when they bring their finds to the birdbath and leave them there to soften them up before eating. Under-ripe fruit is one of their favorites, but occasionally we get what they dug out of someone’s garbage can. Gack. Cleaning it out is a once a day affair.
I created a post, although it seems to randomly fail to accept entries. I hit the “submit” button, and it acts like it’s going to post the message, but nothing happens.
I figured out how to link to Google photos, tried to add the instructions to the pinned message, and nothing happened. Is that moderated, locked, or was it another random failure?
I’m not a highly regular, I show up about twice a year when I have a good picture.
Sorry, I was out for a bit. I know there is a big debate, but I have come down on the side of Westerns like a little bit bigger hole. This one is just a hair bigger than the eastern standard of 1 and 1/2. I was aiming 1 and 9/16, but standard hole saws don’t exist in that diameter, so I just had to mark the hole and file it out a bit with a rat tail. They also prefer a bigger floor, due to bigger broods. I made this one 5 and 1/2 square. This pair laid six eggs.
I had a lot of success with stock Gilwoods in Indiana, and I made some larger versions that appealed to the TRES. I couldn’t get anyone here interested in my 5×5 box, and I tried for a few years. Even after I filed out the entrance hole a bit. They would come and check it out, take a look around, but ultimately move on.
I live on the very edge of town, with open space behind.
Everything is going well so far. I need to get the predator guard on. I’m more worried about raccoons and snakes than anything else. I wasn’t around to monitor, but my guess is there is about a week to go to hatching. We’ll see.
It’s an elevator-type trap, but pigeon sized. Instead of a sparrow-sized cage it’s a five gallon bucket. I thought it was hilarious, but that video didn’t post very well.
I might, though I’m not sure I’d have anything to look at. I can’t get the bluebirds to nest in my boxes. I put the boxes up and they check them out, walk the roofline, look all excited, then disappear and aren’t seen again until September. When the whole brood stops by to say “hi”. It’s good that they’re nesting somewhere, but I’m not closing the sale. I got a house wren this year, which is better (in some sense) than the previous two seasons, which were total shutouts.
What I have the most of here are grey phoebees, house finches, hummingbirds, acorn woodpeckers, and ravens. I also get a lot of hooded orioles in May, feeding from my Grevillea robusta. None of which take to a nest box. Surprisingly few HOSP and EUST.
I used to live in suburban Fort Wayne. My first year or two went fine, no HOSP problems.
I didn’t think I would want to kill the little brown birdies, until I saw one dragging the dead bluebird babies out of the house and dropping them on the ground. That sort of thing changes your attitude in a hurry.
For one
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/abi_full_disk_low_res_jan_15_2017.jpg
I worked on the imager instrument that produced that picture.
Carol’s concept is an excellent one for a hot climate summer box. White surface facing the sun, insulation underneath, and an air gap between the insulation and the house. The white surface reflect away most of the sunlight, so the outer surface stays as cool as possible. The insulation keeps the heat from being transferred to inside surface. The air gap serves as an insulating layer and as a chimney to cool the inner layer of the insulation, removing whatever heat gets transferred to the inner surface. Putting one insulating block on the south side (assuming you live in the northern hemisphere) and on the top blocks sides with the strongest incoming sunlight. One on the west side might be a good addition, too, since there is strong solar heating in the evening on the west when the air temperature is the hottest. Probably your box entrance hole faces east to keep rain from blowing in, so insulating the mounting pole side should be easy.
(I’ve been making a living on spacecraft thermal control and atmospheric physics for most of the last 35 years, so I feel confident in making that assessment.)
I’ve heard lots of legends about birds not liking painted houses, but I have not seen it. If they will put up with Carol’s rig they aren’t going to mind a little latex paint. I wouldn’t paint the inside, but my box that is painted on the outside has been a favorite. The only boxes I’ve heard about that need to be colored on the inside hare bat houses. They like things to be black on the inside, so use a water based stain for them, but bird houses should be bare wood.
Perry Ramsey here. I used to go by the name pgrfw because I lived in Fort Wayne, IN. I was host to about ten fledglings a year back there, but I gave it all up and moved to Los Angeles. Even though I live in the LA city limits I have a pretty nice setup here. We see scrub jays, mockingbirds, flickers, phoebes, a great horned owl visits almost every night, and we occasionally see a bobcat. (And crows. And ravens. Tons of them.) I see bluebirds around, just not in my yard. I didn’t get my nest boxes up last year. Have to get on the stick and get some up before the season starts.
