The N. C. Bluebird Society, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the future of the Eastern Bluebird and other cavity-nesting birds native to North Carolina.
Visit our website at www.ncbluebird.com
Dedicated to conserving Bluebirds.
The N. C. Bluebird Society, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the future of the Eastern Bluebird and other cavity-nesting birds native to North Carolina.
Visit our website at www.ncbluebird.com
Should the nest be left in the bird house after the nesting season? Most sources say to remove near the end of October, but others say some birds like a previous nest. I noticed the bluebirds returning to the bird house just recently. I had removed the nest. I assume the nest should be left if the weather is unusually warm.
Hello Buddy Dog,
Your blog note has been forwarded to me for reply. I can’t tell if your note has been answered or not, so here goes!
Answer is YES! Immediately after the babies fledge clean out the old nest and give the box a moderate cleaning. The blues as most other birds will not reuse a nest. In the case of the blues, they will build another nest on top of the old. Eventually the nests will be at a level with the entrance hole. If no one as answered your note earlier, my apology. If you have further questions or problem, please feel free to contact me at rwelch5@bellsouth.net.
Ray
Help,
I have house sparrows that are discouraging any and all bluebirds. I found a female sitting in the nest cup with a dead male up and behind her last week. I have been distroying the sparrow nests but I didn’t get any bluebirds last year. One pair layed 2 eggs and one time when I looked in the box they were gone.
Thank you for your help
I have had bluebirds nesting on my deck, five feet from my living room windows for four years. This year, a neighbor insisted that a portion of the woods and underbursh behind our townhouses be cut down to give her more room to walk her dog. This was totally unnecessary, since she already had acres. The area they ruined is small, but it was ruined right when the bluebirds would have been courting and choosing a nesting box. I have not seen a single bluebird since the habitat was destroyed.
How can it get my bluebird family back?
Very helpful information! I had not thought about the mites as a problem.
Just yesterday, three of the five eggs in our nestbox hatched okay, but there are still two left unhatched this morning. Are the remaining eggs in trouble or just slow to hatch? All five in our last brood hatched on the same day.
http://blogs.wncn.info/dheiser/
My apologies for not answering these before hand. I am just learning how to get into this blog and I am not sure that I am doing it right.
1. To Dave Heiser – Wow what wonderful pictures and text. All the eggs should hatch on the same day. My guess is the two will not hatch. Otherwise, the first hatched would be larger and get all the food.
2. To Mary Chris Griffin – I grieve for the loss of habitat. However, it may turn out that the cleared area will entice the bluebirds back. Try putting out mealworms or Winter Pudding (No Melt Suet). They are under “Feeding Bluebirds” on the website.
3. Sheila Fredette- English House Sparrows are not protected because they are not native birds. I have been told that you need to remove their sticks in the nest boxes as many as eight times before they move on.
4. Sheila Fredette- Leaving or removing the nest is a personal choice. I remove it because if I were a bluebird, I would want a clean nest. Building on an old nest does take less material, but I have found that this often brings the new nest so high in the nest box that the babies are too close to the entrance hole and that cats and raccoons do not have to reach in as far.
Hello,
New member here hoping someone can offer some advise? I have puchased a feeder and some mealworms to help feed my current nesters. The problem I am having is that with the heat the mealworms die within a few hours. The bluebirds havn’t descovered the feeder yet and I’m having a time trying to keep the worms alive long enough to give the birds time to discover them. Any advise on this issue? Seems a awful waist to keep putting them out just to have them dry up from the heat.
Hello Rick,
I am new to blogging and sorry that it appears that no one has responded to you as of yet! The jury is still out on feeding the Bluebirds, some agree and some don’t believe in feeding. I am one of those who agrees with a moderate feeding in the Summer more as a “treat” rather than feeding,especially feeding babies. Breeding pairs that I have at location other than here at my house do not get feed. But I have 1 box with babies that I do feed. When I mentioned moderate feeding” I am saying 10 to 12 without babies and 10 to 20 with babies. If you will develope some type of communication with the parent birds, be that whistling, clapping your hands, etc. at your feeding location they will soon where and what time to expect a feeding. That may sound odd, but it WILL happen. I feed between 3-4 each PM and they will come to where ever you have established as your “feeding location.” I keep my mealworms in a plastic shoe box and unrefrigerated. I buy 1,000 mealies at a time and they will last for a month to 6 weeks. There is a lot on information on the mealies online, Google mealworms and you will several page of site that you can view. I hope this has helped, if not or you have further ?s email me at rwelch5@bellsouth.net.
I am setting up a place to put mealworms out for BlueBirds & I would like to put it near my kitchen window. Does anyone know if this will “not mix well” with the Hummingbird feeder I also have at the window (about 4 feet away)?
Beth, Your question has been forwarded to me for a reply and truely sorry for the delay. I do not believe that the Blues with interfer with the hummers. One thing with the blues is that one needs to identify the feeding site. That can be whistling, clapping hands, etc., etc. when you offeer mealworms. The Blues are not going to be at that location very long and vicea-versa for the hummers. Once you identify the feeding location they will bond with that location and grow to expect the mealworms at that location. Hope that this has helped, if not please let me know.
I do not think that there is a problem with this, but I have had no experience with mealworm feeders and hummingbird feeders this close together. The hummers are very agile and should not collide with the mealworm feeder. I do not know how the bluebirds will react.
It is not necessary to feed bluebirds mealworms in the summer. They have many insects waiting to be a bluebird meal.
Dear Rick,
The bluebirds can find plenty of insects in the summer. Unless one of the parents has been killed and the remaining parents needs help, there shouldn’t be a need for supplemental feeding in the summer.
I am just learning to do this blog and am not very good at it!!
Sincerely,
Helen
I’m a little confused regarding wrens. Is a Carolina Wren the same as the wrens mentioned in readings I’ve received from NCBS? I’m asking because I had a couple make a nest in my BB nest box at my home. I tried to do research, and I feel that I made a mistake. I removed the grassy nest, and their second attempt as well. Then I ended up with the ugly twiggy nest. Can you let me know if I did right or wrong by removing the Carolina Wren’s nest? As well as any other info that can clear my confusion…
Hello Kris,
Your blog question has been referred to me for a reply and am sorry for the delay in replying.
The Carolina Wren is one of the “protected’ cavity dwellers. So the answer to your question is technically NO. The male Carolina Wren will build what is called “false nest” and then he let the female select the nest she wants, unlike the Bluebird which is vice-a-versa. The male wren will fill up every nestbox he can find so, unless one can determine that the nest is false one can not remove the nest. At the State meeting, I made a statement that we put up bluebird box and hope for bluebirds, but if we get wrens or chickadees, etc. we have to be happy with them. When the babies fledge, remove the nest and hope for bluebirds! I will admit that the ultimate decision is up to you. Please let me know if I can help you further.
Ray
I have been feeding my bluebirds mealworms in a cup located under the next box a few times a day. Now if I don’t go out several times a day they are coming to my window and pecking or sitting on the window sill until I come out. Should I continue to feed them several times a day or just once, or discourage them somehow from pecking at my window. Thanks for your help.
Hello Mary,
Is this my potter friend?
Your blog question has be forwarded to me for a reply. I feed mealworms year round. I will tell you that the jury is still out on whether to feed or not to feed. I also know what you mean by them pecking on you window because I get the same treatment. The blues here at the house will come expecting worm if my wife or I go out into the yard. I feed the mealworms more as a treat than their total diet. I feed once a day with the number of mealworms varying depending upon the activity going on. During the winter I may feed 10 to 15 and during the nesting season I will increase the number depending on the number of babbies they are feeding. The bluebird will adjust their clock to whatever schedule you establish. Let me know of any further question you might have and I hope this will work for you.
We just moved from GA to Pittsboro and already have THREE bluebird boxes all inhabited with bluebirds. Our yard is not very large, only about .4 acre. Strange thing happened though…First box to be used was in the front yard and had a chickadee nesting in it and we only peeked in it once to find the typical moss nest with 4 eggs. And we were seeing the chickadee going in and out of the box. We did not disturb the nesting chickadee and did not open the box any further as I’ve heard they are NOT tolerant of monitoring. About a week later, we saw bluebirds going in and out of that same box but assumed they were just looking and would see the chickadee’s nest with eggs. After observing this for about 2 days, my curiosity got the best of me and I opened the box. I was surprised to see another nest of soft,fine grasses (not pinestraw) woven right on top of the chickadee nest with 4 bluebird eggs now. No further signs of the chickadee and the bluebird eggs have since hatched. I have never had this happen in GA and while I’m tickled to have the bluebirds, I’m rather dismayed to see the little chickadee being driven away. I have no idea if her eggs are beneath the bluebird nest? I don’t dare dive into it as the nest integriy I’m sure would be destroyed if disturbed. I can photograph this to show but would like to know if anyone else as ever witnessed this?
Hello Martha,
As I started reading your note, I thought you were going to say that the male bluebird was feeding the chickadee. A friend of mine had a nesting pair of bluebirds and a hatched clutch of chickadees. While the bluebird hen incubated her eggs, the male bluebird helped the chickadees to feed their hatchings. The bluebird would go in the box with or without the chickadee parents. When the bluebirds hatched he feed his babies and everone lived happily there after!
The incubation and nestling periods for the chickadees is fairly short. The bluebird by nature is not an agressive bird, not one that would harm another nest. My guess is that the chickadees hatched,fledged and then the blues took over the nest box. The nature of the bluebird is very docile which can often lead to their own harm. You don’t say what kind of timeframe we are talking about here, but I just can’t see the blues harming the chickadees.
Thanks for your contact. Keep up the good work!
Ray Welch, President
Hi, I hope you may give me some information.
I put a decorative bird house on our front porch and didn’t realize it was a bluebird house. We have had 3 pairs of bluebirds nest and have babies there, all successful.
However, we had another pair who built a nest and the female laid 5 eggs. We noticed a few feathers near our front door and have seen the male go in the birdhouse but not the female.
I was shocked and very saddened today when I found the female dead in our yard. The male has gone in the bird house but comes right out.
My question is: what happens to the 5 eggs and does the male take over until they hatch. We feel so bad about this. They’re just birds but you have to love God’s creatures.
Thanks for your reply.
Marilyn
Oh Marilyn,
Sounds like a predator problem! More than likely it is a raccoon. I would guess that the raccoon, after the eggs injuried the female to the point she died. Initially, my thought went to include a house cat, but don’t believe that the cat would get or have interest in the five eggs. So my best guess is the raccoon.
You will find that the bluebirds will accept nest cavities of all type. I have a neighbor who is a golfer and place a small decorative golf bag bird house on his desk. One could have put a tennis ball through the entrance. Dad and Mom bluebird decided they were going to use the golf bag and have just recently fledged five babies.
Thanks for your contact and please let me know if you need further.
Ray Welch, President