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Bluebird Boxes



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


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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.

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