Return to the Iowa Gardening Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
Posted by Koszta_kid Iowazone 5 (My Page) on Tue, Feb 22, 05 at 8:18
| I have 3 bluebird houses I bought at the Koszta church auction. I bought 3 guards to put on front to help keep sparrows out . It also keeps woodpeckers from enlarging opening. Dh has to redo the houses so i can clean them out and check to see is "who" is nesting there. Got book that shows the nest. And if it looks like they just threw the nesting material in it's a sparrow. Right???? Anyone have Bluebirds. When do they migrate back???? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
| mid April tends to be the peak of Bluebird migration, I notice that usually males arrive first. |
RE: Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
Our new house has a bluebird house mounted in a corner of the lot. The previous owner said that they had Bluebirds nesting in it for the first time just last year, so we are hopeful they will be back!
I did a search and found these
Bluebird Links that answered my questions. I hope you find them useful also.
Brad |
RE: Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
| Bluebird nests are very tidy grass nests unlike sparrows & have blue or white eggs. You can check them regularly if your box is hinged to clean out sparrows, etc that start building. Birds have no sense of smell so scent near nest is a big oldwives tale. When I ran a Blubird box trail for a park we would check them each week, remove undesirable things from box, and log progress of active boxes each week (they didn't mind at all). If a nest has a failed attempt or destroyed remove old nest and often they try again. Sparrows have sloppy nests, wrens are of twigs, also chickidees and tree swallows may use -one has moss in nest and one lines with feathers. Keep an eye on nest b/c one species will often kick out another if allowed - just remove repeatedly if this happens-the other will give up. I used to have 3 boxes at my last house and as soon as blubirds moved into one, I let the wrens have the others-mine were probably too close to support more than one (possibly 2) bluebird families-they like space. Abbey |
RE: Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
| I have four bluebird boxes, and every year a wren nests in the same one. The first time I thougt it was a sparrow because of the disarray of nesting, but after closer inspection, and a good scolding, realized she had staked her territory. So, now I just settle for 3 pair, and sometimes they are here as early as middle March. The second most fun thing to do is watch how they 'feed and clean' in one flight, and then alternate babysitting while mom gets some exercise. My favorite thing to watch is the male teaching them to leave the nest and fly to some close object. I wish I had a hundred pair, but they're too territorial. |
RE: Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
| Jay I have one of your boxes you brought to the the swap in Morse. Talked to guy south of Marengo. Said he had to check his nesting boxes daily for House sparrows. Said would build nest right on top of the baby BB. And to spray the PC pipe I have attached to BB houses-to keep snakes from climbimg up. But we have some grass fence line I think they will like. |
RE: Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
| The only trouble I have with sparrows is with my 3 Martin houses. It's a constant battle from the time the first scouts arrive until they start nesting to keep the pesky little things out of the boxes. I usually end up with about 2 or 3 nests of sparrows, but it doesn't seem to bother the Martins. Probably bothers me more than them! One way I have learned about keeping sparrows out of bluebird boxes, is to keep them low. I am over 6'4" tall, and I can look down into all my boxes....the lower the better. Of the four, only the one with the wren has been 'ceded'. |
RE: Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
| Saw a male fluttering around one of the houses yesterday. Won't be long till they're all here. Hope we don't get the snow here in Missouri you people up North are suppose to get~ |
RE: Keeping Bluebirds
| | |
| Jay That means wouldn't be long until Males will be scouting here. We didn't get any snow today. But east corner of Iowa had slick roads this morning 4-6 of snow. |
|
|
|
|
