Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bluebird Clutch

We have our first bluebird clutch of this year. The parents are bug catching machines. Nest boxes are cheap and easy to put up in the yard. If you don’t already have one, put one up and enjoy the show . Boxes need to be cleaned out every winter before nesting season begins. Down south you can get 3-4 clutches a year if it doesn’t get too hot. Sorry for the low quality pic, hard to get a decent picture with a cellphone.

What does the nest box look like?

I bought this one at a local farmer’s market. TSC carries a decent one as well. The males are very territorial so additional boxes need to be spaced a couple hundred yards apart.

Read the title quickly - though maybe someone was having drive train trouble with a school bus.

Nice pics, though.

Peep, peep 😊

I keep two boxes up. For several years, we would get bluebirds in one of the boxes and tree swallows in the other. That worked well until a neighbor put up a big 8 hole bird condo that house sparrows took over. The house sparrows quickly drove the bluebirds away.

Last year I got pissed and declared war on the sparrows. I bought a trap and caught over 40 of those suckers. A pair of bluebirds did manage to raise a brood last year. This year I've got bluebirds in one box and sparrows in the other. I've been baiting my trap site but don't have the trap out yet. Soon.

Cool pic OP. I don’t see many bluebirds but we did have at least one last summer hanging out around the back yard for awhile.

They've not moved this far north yet. The most I've seen here was three clutch attempts by a pair of the Mountain versions. First clutch froze out though.

Usually have to thin out the English Sparrows who are the first to usurp the houses. They are bug catching fools. Usually have something sighted before even leaving the house post.

I made the mistake of putting up houses near the woods. House wrens raised havoc with the nesting Blue Birds.

Some years the Black flies are bad and kill the young in the nest.

I’ve got 6 boxes out and two active nest so far this spring it’s a little early here in Indiana. Usually all of them fill up or at least 5 out of 6.

Had a pair of Western Bluebirds looking in on one of my nest boxes yesterday.. which reminded me I haven't emptied the nest materials out from last year.
Think I'm too late?

Too funny, my exact thought.