Bluebird Fanatic
Hi Everybody,
This is only my second year with BSP, but am enjoying it tremendously. Last year I got my boxes up too late to get a Bluebirds to nest, so I kept them up all winter, and made sure they were clean and ready to go in the spring. I have spotted 2 females & 1 male Bluebird. Usually only 1 female & 1 male come in to feed, but at times I see the females fight at the boxes. I was jumping for joy when I noticed the female start to build a nest in my PVC box. She worked feverishly for hours. I thought for sure she would have the whole nest built in that time(remember I’m new to all this). After I noticed neither bird at the box I went & checked & the floor was just covered, nothing else. Again I thought there would be more of a nest there. Also I noticed two doors down a neighbor put up a box, and now it looks like this pair is building in both boxes. Is that common?????? Could it be the male has a different female for each box. I haven’t noticed any nest building since. Does it always take this long. Any feed back would be appreciated. I am soooooo excited to have my first nest of Bluebirds in my box (hopefuly my box). The whole 2 nest building things & 2 female thing is what has me stumped. Please give me some insight. Also I’ve never done this blog thing either so be patient with me.
Tammy/Bluebird Fanatic
Harry Schmeider Said,
April 14, 2009 @ 9:39 pm
Welcome Tammy to the BSP blog, Females will fight over a nest box and so will males. The female will chase another female away and the males will do battle with other males as well. As for the little nesting material just on the bottom of the nest box that’s common. Its at times unpredictable concerning nest building of the female. Sometimes she builds a dummy nest so other bluebirds will not use the nest box. But generally she starts to build a nest just exactly as you have explained. With just a little grass on the bottom of the nest box and because of early spring she wants to leave her mark that she plans to build a nest there. And yes Males can have two females at the same time if the nest boxes are too close to one another. All sort of combination can and do occur during nesting seasons. Please keep us informed about your experience so we can all learn from it. Thanks for blogging and sharing your experience with bluebirding.