FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Blue Bird nest box being raided

[Lois Cox <lacox@xxxxxxxx>]

Help!  We have had one of our blue bird  nest boxes raided twice this 
spring after  a brood of baby birds  had been hatched.  This last time  
I had checked the nest on Friday,  May 29 and there were still 5  eggs 
in the nest.  On Tuesday my mother went  outside and yelled in that the 
swallows were attacking the blue birds.  I  ran out and they were all  
around the box.  I ran them off  but when I looked in the box it  was 
empty.  I  found  one baby on the ground - dead of course.  We have 
tree  swallows and barn swallow around and they where the ones circling 
  the nest box.  Is  this normal  behavior  for them,  and is  there any 
way we can protect the blue birds?  We do not  mind the swallows--they 
are pretty birds too and  eat a lot of insects, but we prefer the blue 
birds  if we have to choose.
Lois

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