Bird Watching: More Bluebird pictures, 1 by 2dCousinDave

2dCousinDave wrote:
Hi shirleyd. Thanks for the comment and congratulations on the late nesting.

I have heard that extreme heat will keep eggs from hatching and that it also will kill the nestlings if they get too hot during the 18 days they are growing inside the nest box. Here in Virginia we normally have three nestings each season and we more typically are at risk of losing all or part of the first clutch because the birds start too early and are hit with a snap of late freezing weather.

This is a topic frequently discussed on the bluebirding forums I participate in. People report trying all sorts of things in an effort to help, like extra ventilation holes at the top of the box, or Styrofoam insulation placed on the sides and top, or things like backyard umbrellas positioned to shade it. One individual even moved an electric fan out close to the nest box.

Meal worms are not really worms at all, but are the larva stage of the darkling beetle. The bluebirds love them. They are available at most pet supply stores, like Petsmart. and are commonly sold in containers of 50, 100 or 500 and are packaged in plastic containers containing oatmeal or bran or some such material for them to eat. Hence the name. I buy them in bulk and have them delivered by FedEx. If you keep them refrigerated they will last for several months. I have a refrigerator in the basement that I use just for this purpose.

I have been feeding meal worms since I started bluebirding in 2004. I first placed a few in an open dish near their nest box, which was located about 30 feet from the raised deck at the rear of our house. Gradually I moved the dish a little closer to the deck and finally up onto the deck. For a year or so I fed them out in the open and for a while only the bluebirds and I knew our little secret.


The problem is that many other insect eating birds also like meal worms, and soon I had Carolina wrens, song sparrows, downy woodpeckers, titmice, chickadees up on the deck. I didn't mind because I was able to get some nice close up pictures. But meal worms are not cheap and some of the bigger birds, like robins and mockingbirds and red-bellied woodpeckers, take a dozen or more at a time, and then there's the starlings. They will sit there and gobble all of them. So I had to get a wire cage that only the smaller birds could squeeze into. The model I got is no longer available but several similar models are. Mine was designed to hang from a shepherd's hook but I affixed it to the deck railing with Velcro. This allows the birds a ramp so they can more easily enter or exit.

Here you see Papa clinging to the side of the cage. Not a great picture of him or the cage but you can get an idea what it's made of and how it's put together.