I've just about had it!!! My poor Bluebirds!!!

[Smiles Jr.]

This is a bb nesting box with tangle-foot on the roof and monofilament strings hanging down around the box. This is the box that the bb couple selected for their home. Poor little things. It's about 100 yds from the house at the edge of a pasture.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

This is my latest nesting box. Slot opening and strings around. It's made of laminate flooring scraps. On this one the roof and the front are hinged for access to the nest. A heavy metal patch keeps both closed. It's mounted on 1/2 conduit so critters can't climb up. We don't have a snake problem here in the Indiana outback. I think.

 

[ninnymary]

Smiles, we don't have bluebirds in the SF bay area at least I haven't seen one. But you are getting close! You've managed to attract them and hatch their eggs. At this point the problems seems to be predators. Work on solving that issue. Good luck and hope you get bluebirds at your place.

Mary

 

[so lucky]

Our neighbor got too close to our bluebird house with a big farm machine. Knocked the post down, and broke the house into several pieces. It had 3 babies inside, with a few feathers but definitely not fledge size. We taped the box back together, stuck the nest inside, the birdies into the nest, and affixed the box to a metal t-post. After a couple hours, the parents came back and continued with the raising of the babies, as far as we could tell.

The biggest problem we have is English sparrows, and my DH is not hesitant to exterminate them with a .22 or his air rifle. There is sometimes a battle lasting several days over ownership of the bluebird house, before nesting.

@Smiles Jr. I saw a pic of a bluebird house with a collar around the entrance hole made of welded wire, with the wire coming out about 2 inches, and making a circle of half-inch daggers around the door. I think for snakes. It would repel me, too. I hope you figure out a solution. Bluebirds are a joy to have around. Their sweet little song always makes me smile.

 

[flowerbug]

for those who want to watch birds but don't want to attract a lot of other animals to deal with putting up a birdbath where you can see it is a great way to experience them and to encourage them to be around.

they'll come and visit and take a bath and get drinks. fun to watch the pecking order of different groups of birds and mixes of species.

what we have to do here is that at the end of the day i go out and hose out the bird bath to clean it out and then this keeps the deer and raccoons from thinking it is their own personal drinking fountain or cleaning station.

we then refill it in the morning.

sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't, doesn't take long to blast the water out with the hose and then refill it or to leave it empty until the next morning.

best thing of all, no feeding so no mess and no pests attracted by the free food and the birds that do come around tend to wander in the gardens and eat some of the bugs, but they also make some nice fertilzer drops too.