Poet Henry David Thoreau wrote that the bluebird “carries the sky on its back.” The first warm days of late winter and early spring send Thoreau’s bits of sky looking for a place to nest. Eastern bluebirds once made their homes in tree cavities. Lacking good nesting spots these days, bluebirds have come to rely on nest boxes specially designed for them. A bluebird box placed by March can raise as many as three broods by summer’s end. In fourteen days, the eggs hatch and in another couple of weeks, the young are ready to fly from the box.
Bluebirds are rural birds, seen in open grasslands with scattered trees or fences. They’re more abundant thanks to people putting up nest boxes for Missouri’s state bird that carries the “sky on its back.”
Building a Bluebird House
- Building a bluebird house will help the birds to nest. Bluebirds usually begin nesting in the first half of March. They lay from three to six eggs, and the incubation period is about 14 days. Young birds fly about 11 days after hatching.
- Sparrows can be a problem for bluebird houses. Tear out their nests and temporarily plug the hole until they move elsewhere.
- Wasps can also be troublesome and may even drive bluebirds away. Spray wasp nests and remove them.
- Predators such as cats, raccoons and snakes can destroy nests. An inverted metal cone or a metal sleeve can help keep these animals from nests.
- Steel pipes coated with grease also can be used to mount the boxes. While this box is designed for bluebirds, it may be used by wrens, chickadees, titmice, tree swallows or even flying squirrels. If you want to try for these species, place the box in trees 10 to 15 feet above the ground in wooded areas.
- If these boxes are placed on poles or in dead trees which are in or over water, tree swallows or prothonotary warblers may use them.
Get directions on building a bluebird house.
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