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

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Lois:
Yes, and House Sparrows (English Sparrows) will kill baby bluebirds and drag
them out of the houses.  When I first began studying birds bluebirds were
regularly found nesting in holes in fence post which had been made by
woodpeckers and such.  You seldom see a fence post with a nesting cavity in
it these days.  They use to be prevailant. Then a big bluebird box project
push came along.  I don't believe the bluebirds are well adapted to nest
boxes.  They use them and have success.  But they are raided by all kinds of
other birds and snakes and so on.  Chickadees use boxes and wrens use them
and don't seem to have as much problem.  At least we don't hear as much
about them.  They seem more successful.  Tree Swallows seem to do very well
with boxes.  When people put up a bunch of bluebird boxes they put them
along trails in more open areas and select for bluebird habitat.  I think
these boxes might have more success for bluebirds than those placed in yards
about houses and buildings and more vegetation where other species can more
easily compete.  Just a wild thought that may not mean anything.  Nothing
more than an off-the-cuff opinion.

Let's go birding...
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lois Cox" <lacox@xxxxxxxx>
To: <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 9:58 PM
Subject: [Bristol-Birds] Blue Bird nest box being raided


> 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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       BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST
Bristol Birds Net Photo Gallery located at:
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwcoffeyy/album?.dir=/efd5

This is a regional birding list sponsored by the
Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications 
between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia
and Northeast Tennessee.  
--------------------------------------------------
You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds.
To post to this mailing list, simply send an email
to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send
an email to bristol-birds-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
the one word 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
--------------------------------------------------
       Wallace Coffey, Moderator
         wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
           (423)764-****