[wisb] Bluebird removes chickadee egg from nest box-Sawyer County
- From: Rick Pertile <mugzy1960@xxxxxxx>
- To: "wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 18:40:02 -0500
Yesterday I saw something that I found to be unusual, not so much that it
doesn't happen with some bird species but rather I didn't realize eastern
bluebirds would do this too.
I have a pair of chickadees that recently completed a nest near my front deck.
There is also a pair of bluebirds showing interest in another house relatively
close to this one. Yesterday morning the female bluebird saw the chickadee
enter the nest and then flew down to the house where she was acting extremely
anxious. She landed on the entrance hole and the other chickadee (guessing the
male) made a few futile attempts to scare her off. She kept looking in and
then finally entered. She was in the box for about 30 seconds and I had to
wonder if she was beating the heck out of the chickadee inside the box. All of
a sudden the female bluebird poked her head out and I could see she was
removing an egg which she dropped about 3 feet from the box upon exiting.
I was a bit taken back and about 10 seconds later the chickadee also exited the
box. I'm guessing this was the first egg the chickadee had laid since there
were no other eggs in the box (I checked afterwards) or perhaps it wasn't the
first egg the bluebird removed. Later that afternoon I saw the chickadees
going back in their house and again the female bluebird lading on the roof
acting anxious.
I figured I would do the chickadees a favor so I reduced the size of the
entrance hole to 1 1/4 inches. This morning they were busy adding rabbit fur
to their nest and the female bluebird could not gain access. The female
bluebird then spent all morning today nest building in the other house she
originally showed interest in. Everyone happy now including the landlord.
Speaking of nest material for chickadees, if you have access to rabbit fur put
it in a suet cage and hang it in trees. The chickadees LOVE it for lining
their nest and I have also had chipping sparrows, pine warblers and redstarts
use it on occasion too.
Rick Pertile
Edgewater Township
Sawyer County
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