Larry, Bill Opengari who is the current coordinator for Bluebird Trails in
Montgomery County, with over 30 years of work on trails and buiding nest
boxes says that he has never encountered this type of aggression. I
operated a birding store for 16 years and coordinate the Giles County
trails. Never have I witnessed nor received a report from any customer of
this behavior. We have both seen bluebirds defend their boxes against
Chickadees, usually successfully but sometimes not. Generally these are
pre-nesting conflicts resolved without serious injury to either and with
the victor raising young in the box of contention. Chickadees raise only
one brood per season and so it is common for a box used by them to be taken
over by the bluebirds after the Chickadees fledge. It is also common in
this area for tree swallows to alternate with the bluebirds in the same
box. We will be very interested to read answers from other coordinators and
the people with the VA Bluebird Society.
My main concern though, is the ornamental condo that you described.
Unfortunately, these are often death traps for many reasons and I strongly
recommend that you seal up all unoccupied holes immediately and the
remainder when all occupants have vacated. The box does not need to be
accessible to serve its only function, that of decoration. These decorative
houses have many flaws, several of which you addressed. They generally have
no way to monitor them or clean them out. They rarely have ventilation or
drainage holes. The openings are often larger than an inch and a half
allowing starlings to access them. They are also appealing to the social
house sparrow. If you thought that the bluebirds were agressive, these
latter two non-native species raise agression to new heights.
If you want to host both chickadees and bluebirds, you can put up a nest
box for the bluebirds which has a 1 and 1/2 inch diameter opening and
another with a slightly smaller diameter for the chickadees. These should
be placed at least 100 feet apart, reducing the chance of one bird
successfully defending both. There are some excellent books on attracting
cavity nesters to boxes. In any case, do some research into appropiate
boxes that will maximize the birds' chances for successful nesting.
Thanks for sharing this behavior.
Peggy Spiegel, Giles County
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