Wild Women: Bluebirds
By: KARK 4 Today
Updated: February 4, 2013
Nesting boxes for bluebirds should be in place by early February.
Bluebirds have made a dramatic comeback in Arkansas and over much of the eastern half of the United States from drastic declines in numbers several decades back.
The drop in bluebird populations was largely due to changing habitat.
Bluebirds have made a dramatic comeback in Arkansas and over much of the eastern half of the United States from drastic declines in numbers several decades back.
Hollows
in trees they once used were scarce because the trees were cleared for
agriculture. Then hollows in wooden fence posts disappeared with the use
of metal posts.
Man-made nesting boxes accounted for much of the resurgence in bluebird numbers in the last half century.
You can build or buy a bluebird box readily, but where it is put up is probably more of a factor in getting nesting success than the box itself.
Bluebirds choose nesting sites that can benefit and safeguard them and the babies they produce.
Bluebird boxes need to be four to five feet off the ground and in place by early February as the male birds, the nest locators, begin their searches even before winter is over.
Man-made nesting boxes accounted for much of the resurgence in bluebird numbers in the last half century.
You can build or buy a bluebird box readily, but where it is put up is probably more of a factor in getting nesting success than the box itself.
Bluebirds choose nesting sites that can benefit and safeguard them and the babies they produce.
Bluebird boxes need to be four to five feet off the ground and in place by early February as the male birds, the nest locators, begin their searches even before winter is over.
Preferences for bluebird box sites:
- Short, mowed grass, like a golf course or cemetery.
- Open land, similar to a meadow.
- Utility wires nearby, for bluebirds to perch while hunting insects below
- No nearby buildings (might harbor house sparrows which can invade nests, kill the young)
- An expanded front yard with a garden.
- Scattered knee-high bushes, such as those found in old fields
- Well-established maturing trees.
