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Bluebird Boxes
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu (CAROLINA BIRDS)
- Subject: Bluebird Boxes
- From: "BILL HILTON JR. (Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History)"<hilton@hiltonpond.org>
- Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 09:51:41 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
I've observed Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) demonstrating typical
early spring behavior this week (22 February) as they investigate
cavities and nest boxes. There's a box made from an old hollow limb
just outside my office window here at Hilton Pond Center near York,
South Carolina, and a bluebird pair has staked it out.
They've been taking turns perching on the top of the nestbox and
going in and out, perhaps trying to find out if everything fits their
notion of a proper place to build a nest and lay eggs. The activity
also firms up the pair bond and probably gets the hormones flowing in
advance of egg and sperm production. Their first eggs won't be laid
for perhaps a month or more--nesting too early can lead to failed
nesting due to cold weather and lack of insects--but this early
pre-nesting activity is still pretty important.
All this goes leads me to encourage folks to get their bluebird boxes
in place this weekend. It's certainly not too late to put up
brand-new nestboxes in appropriate locations, and it's a good time to
clean old boxes of any winter debris left by roosting birds. (The
same is true of boxes designed for wrens, woodpeckers, etc.) As a
rule of thumb, bluebird nestboxes in the Carolinas should be in place
each year by Valentine's Day.
If you'd like some basic information about making, placing, and
maintaining bluebird nestboxes, you might like to visit the website
for Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History at
http://www.hiltonpond.org. Go to the main "Research" page and follow
the links to "Birds & Bird Banding" and then "Nestbox Studies." The
site includes a blueprint for an easy-to-build nestbox that has
proved very successful in attracting Eastern Bluebirds, plus
chickadees and titmice.
Even if you don't have a yard that's suitable for a bluebird box, you
might consider building one you could erect on a fencepost along
your route to and from work; that way, you could monitor the box and
provide yourself with a nature break on your daily commute. Or maybe
there's a farmer who would let you put up boxes long the edge of his
soybean field. Considering the ever-decreasing number of natural tree
cavities, any properly-designed nestbox you put up will probably be
welcomed by a variety of cavity-nesting species.
Happy Bluebird Watching!
BILL
**********
BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road
York, South Carolina 29745
USA
e-mail: <hilton@hiltonpond.org>
Voice: (803) 684-5852
eFax: (503) 218-0845
Hilton Pond Website: <http://www.hiltonpond.org>
Operation RubyThroat Website: <http://www.rubythroat.org>
"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset."
BHjr.
**********