Where do your Bluebirds nest?

I have tried unsuccessfully for years to get Bluebirds to nest at our farm. I followed all the advice on size of house, hole, height it was hung, and kept them out of busy areas.
This year my DH bought a new purple martin house, 12 hole, made of hardy plank. We got it in the spring and set it on a saw horse in the front yard to await mounting this winter. We had two Bluebird pairs nest in it not 15' from the front door. At the same time.
Now I have mounted some decorative birdhouses on fence posts surrounding my front yard and for the last three days, I have had a pair of BB scoping out the lower floor of my "fancy" one.
Did I miss the memo? Or are my birds "different"? Whichever it is, I am thrilled to see them up close.

Joy

That is great! I am sure you are thrilled to have them wherever they want to live. I don't have them since I am in city/residental area. My sister lives outside of Cleburne and has them nest there. They are georgeous and you are blessed to have them as guest even if it is your fancy bed and breakfast they chose. LOL!

Year ago I went to a seminar on Purple Martins and the person giving it was asked if he had them at his house. He traveled the US for 20 years giving seminars on Purple Martins and how to attract them to your Martin houses and he had never had one nest in his house. A few years ago a helper of mine gave me and our boss Blue Bird houses she had made and it was not built the the standards that they call for. Add to that, our boss mounted it almost 30' up a pine tree. When he did, I told hem they like it around 4' off the ground. As he was driving away, I looked out the door and saw a Blue Bird flying out of the bird house just 5 minutes after he had mounted it to the tree. You just never know.

Maybe the got tired of the same old same old, we all need variety.

Love that birdhouse.

G

It is a nice one. The only birds I get in any houses I have put out are E. sparrows so I just gave up. Any suggestions how to avoid them and invite some native specie?
C

LOL! I do have bluebirds nesting in two of the "standard issue" wooden bluebird houses. Actually, I think I have about five living in one of the houses. I even have purple martins in a purple martin house (in spring and summer). I put up a pretty bird house, from that place in Edom, on top of a 7 foot corner post from an old torn down fence line. It looks like a gnome hose and the creator/artist said maybe a wren would live in it. Nope, I have a bluebird couple in it right now. I think once they get the idea that they like the area and the humans living there pretty much leave them alone they just let their hair down and make themselves at home! I can't say how I managed to get the martins. I just put up the house (birthday present) and they came the next year. Possibly beginers' luck?

Near my home is the local High School footbal field and surrounding it are poles for lights and every one is full of woodpecker holes and looks like every pole has at least one pair of nesting Bluebirds and these holes are way high so I guess the hieght doesn't matter ..One way to keep out the sparrows is by using a hole that is in the bottum or so I have read haven't tried it yet ..

I have purple martins as well, Terri. We did the same thing, just put up a standard martin house one winter and here they came. I was told to put it up in December so that they would see it and would remember at nesting time. You also should take it down at a certain time, can't remember that, which is why we end up with sparrows in it. We usually take it down early fall and clean out the nest materials, collapse the pole, and put it back up around now. I have to buy a new pole for the one on the saw horses.
Oh, you need to put it out in the open for martins and put it up high. They don't do woods apparently.
We have house sparrows that nest in our bunkhouse porch supports, right at the roof. Doesn't bother us, in fact, we have a pair nesting now in the middle of winter. Wait is it spring? Or summer? With this weather who knows?
I have over 20 bird houses that I have collected over the years, mostly old ones that I find at sales and repair. The sparrows commandeer a few, but we do have other birds come and go.
The way I understand it, there is a hole size, location, position and type that attract certain species and repel others. Like BB houses. And we know how that works for me, all my BB houses stay empty.

I did like you, read what I was supposed to do and where did the BB nest???... in a ratty old birdhouse that my neighbor was going to throw away..While in the regulation BB house a pair of titmice raised a wonderful family...go figure!!..lol..

yesterday saw a pair of BB checking out future homes so put up one that had been removed and today there are 3 pair checking out the locations and a spirited fight broke out as to who got which it is still undecided so I need to go help them out by getting rid of the english sparrows ( which are not sparrows but rather weaver finches and mortal enemies of the BBs)

My DH was late in putting up our old martin house, just got it up last weekend because I was fussing that the scouts would be here soon. It went up on Sunday, saw the first scout on Monday, and by Wednesday three were scoping out the various rooms. Got my telescoping pole for my wooden martin house in the ground, but need to wait a day or two for the concrete to harden.
I was amazed that we had a full house the first time we put our martin house up, so I am hoping that we have enough interest for another one.
Haven't seen any birds scoping out my other houses but they are busy with the feeders. A pair of chickadees have taken over the bunkhouse porch cover and already have a nest. Geese are starting to spend a lot of time under the bunkhouse which is their favorite nesting spot so I guess spring is really on the way even though we are forcast for 20's next week.

Joy

I'll have to crank up our purple martin house. Thanks for the heads up! I usually don't crank it up to height until mid Feb.

I was told that the scouts that are arriving now are older birds and are looking for their nesting sites from previous years. If those are not available they will move on to find new sites. Young birds come later and look for sites. So once you have some established one year, put up your house in January and the same ones will nest there again. Houston Chronicle did an article last Saturday (week ago) about it as well.

Here in North Texas (southern Dallas county) I've had Bluebirds all winter. They continue to check out their boxes, where they raised three broods last year. I plan to put up another box or two this year since at one time in the Fall I had more than 15 of them flying about.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com

I've put up some extra bluebird boxes over winter. My only questions is do we need to clean out the already established BB boxes?

We've got a nasty wind going right now, but as soon as that dies down I will officially crank up the martin house. We've had martins in my old house, but this will be the first season for my new, fancy marting house I got for my birthday!

By all means clean the houses I see them sometimes nest in ones that are not cleaned but the problem is the English sparrows will kill Bluebirds while they are on the nest and break the eggs and with all of that left in the box I don't know if they would use it again..The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife conservation sent out a bulliten a few years back asking for the public's help in controlling the English sparrow and outlined the harm they were doing to the BB nesting so as for me I try and control the Weaver Finches which is what they truly are ..They have a heavy black beak and a black bib ..

How are they recommending we control the English sparrow? We do have an American Kestral couple working in our pasture. The bluebirds seem to be well able to avoid them as they are multiplying pretty well here. I do wory about the other birds, but a Kestral has to eat, too. I know they had mouths to feed last season. Maybe they are getting the English sparrows. Guess that would help.

My matin house has the starling-proof entry holes. The ones shaped like a half moon. Will that keep the sparrows out as well?

My favorite method is a pellet gun but my friend has a sparrow trap that is available from several gardening catalogs .It works quite but is a little bit spendy just keep it in mind that the blue jays tend to predate any young birds and eggs as well ..I told a friend about ODOW bulletin and he was not too believing until he checked with a local Audabon official who in turned checked with some other person and was told exactly the same thing I told them .....If you do not have a good bird book please let me reccomend Birds Of North America it is a Golden Field Guide from St. Martin's press

My favorite generic bird book is Sibley's guide to birds. I now have an app on my Ipod that is pretty good as well.
Right now we are being innundated with grackles, they can strip a feeder in 20 minutes if they find them. Fortunately my new locations in the front yard have only been found by the finches and other song birds. But my fields are covered several times a day with foraging grackles.
The finches won't even let me rehang the feeder before they start eating.

You know, I didn't care for grackles at all until I saw them chasing down crickets and grasshoppers around a building one day. Now I can tollerate them a bit better. I figure that if they show up here at least they can take care of the grasshoppers for me before they move on. LOL!

Another myth laid to rest ,I took down a BB house for cleaning and repairs and when I replaced it I turned the entrance hole to the bottum ,in less than one hour I saw a weaver Finch enter thru the bottum hole so one more thing that did not work ..PS I snuck up to the house and block the sparrow's exit ,one down lots more to go..

when I lived in MI we had about a doz BB boxes set up on our property and few nights wed walk pulling out the sparrows nests trying to keep them clear for the BBs.. well we missed one and when my ex reached in to clean it we found babies already hatched.. Now I have no problems getting rid of the unhatched sparrow eggs but I could not kill something already hatched.. I was amazed that just in a matter of a few days they had hatched! Needless to say that never happened again, we became much more dedicated to keeping the sparrows from nesting

The bluebirds in my yard have made their nest in one of the boxes I have out. The male was "courting" after the female this evening, so I'm expecting the first egg shortly.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com

I don't have bluebirds in my yard, but I sure wish i had them they are so pretty. Of course I love the cardinals too, the mockingbirds the doves the chickadees, the woodpeckers, they are all so lovely.

I think, knock wood, I have four purple martins living in my new martin house. We've had some adventures with an English sparrow couple. Thanks, grits, for alerting me regarding those sparrows. They killed one of the martins. But I've been cleaning out the sparrow nest every day and more martins have shown up. So I'm hoping I've evicted those little devils for the last time as I haven't seen them in two days now!

Looking forward to mowing down the lane this summer mosquito free!

The bluebirds have been around, I have a group that stays all winter. I have two new houses up for them so the more the merrier. They are really my favorites as they are so cheerful and active.

Haven't seen any wrens yet this year.

Purple Martins have been here since two weeks now. More and more coming everyday.

My neighbor has a martin house just stored behind his shed near my fence. I need to ask if I can put it up and maintain in along our fence line.
I don't have bluebirds here but do have a lot of interesting birds from time to time. Before DG I had a painted bunting, and a yellow-billed cuckoo but no pictures then. Since I joined DG I have had 3 warblers identified; myrtle, blackburnian, and the Magnolia. Numerous other more common ones, my favorite is the Cedar Waxwings. They come a couple times a year in flocks. Today it was the Titmouse that had my attention.

Funny, isn't it, how one aspect of nature will lead you into another. My "gateway drug" was, of course, butterflies and moths, but you can't learn about them without learning about plants. Then you learn all about the other things that use the plants (other insects), and then the the parts of nature that are connected to those insects, like birds. Everything is connected.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com

You are so right Dale, that is why it is so important to preserve our plants and animals.

Indeed it is all connected...part of the great design.

Dale, I totally concur! =D

Agreed Dale! We're too suburban, I think, for the Bluebirds to nest. I have been lucky enough to see a pair of Painted Buntings in the yard one day. And there are always a pair of cardinals that nest in our cedars.

Checked the bluebird box late this afternoon -- six eggs! It'll be a crowded little box. Time to get some mealworms.

Careyana -- I know what you mean about living in too suburban an area for bluebirds. I never saw them when I lived "in town". Makes me wonder how long they will hang around here. I'm hardly in the country any more, and there's more and more development going in all the time -- on both sides of me, unfortunately. I intend to enjoy them for as long as possible.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com

Not a blue bird. Just excited to announce the first of the barn swallows arrived today!

Sweet!! Great news Dale on the eggs; and the barn swallows too Lynea. Dale with all of those georgeous flower beds out there they would be foolish to leave.

It's true, our house swallows are back, too! I so look forward to them every year. I've seen a number of blue birds flying around, but no nests yet.

The purple martin saga continues at our house. I've evicted those darned English sparrows seven or eight times now. They just don't seem to get the picture. But the tide may be turning as I counted eight purple martins rooting on the house Sunday morning. Perhaps if there are more experienced martins showing up the sparrows will be driven off. Don't know that much about martins to know if that would be true, but a gal can hope---can't she? I know that's life in the bird world, but I don't want to have to bury another martin. That was sad...

They do like the location, Sheila. They've come back for years now, and usually raise three broods. There's certainly lots of juicy insect life in the area for them to grab and feed their young. Of course, a little saucer of mealworms every evening doesn't hurt, either.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com