April 24, 2012: We have new tenants! Can you guess which species is building a nest? Join the conversation on our Facebook page.
About the Nest Box Camera
We built and installed this Bluebird nest box with an infrared camera in late March of 2006 at a location where Eastern Bluebirds had successfully nested in previous years.
A pair of Bluebirds began building a nest, but they abandoned it and a pair of Tree Swallows took over the nest. (One of the many challenges facing Bluebirds is competition from other species for nesting sites. This is true for both natural and artificial sites.) The Tree Swallows successfully raised four babies.
In late April of 2007, we noticed a pair of Bluebirds around the nest box. They built a nest and laid five eggs, which hatched on May 22 (see photo). 
Once the babies had grown up and left the nest, we cleaned out the nest box. In late June, the Bluebirds began building another nest and laying a second brood of eggs.
In the spring of 2009, Tree Swallows again claimed the box again. In April of 2010, Chickadees chose our high-tech nest box as “home sweet home.”
Installing a Bluebird Box
Natural Lands Trust has Bluebird nest boxes like this one on many of its preserves, nearly 200 boxes in total.
Erecting and maintaining nest boxes is one of the best things that you can do to help this species, which were once as common as American Robins are today. Their numbers declined dramatically in the middle of the last century with the loss of open space to development, changes in farming practices, increased reliance on pesticides, and the introduction of invasive bird species like the House Sparrow and the European Starling that compete with Bluebirds for nesting sites.
We’ve found that a simple wooden box works best. It’s important that the entrance hole on the box be 1½” in diameter. If it’s smaller than 1½” the Bluebirds can’t fit; if it’s bigger, Starlings take over the box. The inside of the box should be at least 4″ x 4″ x 8″. We’ve actually been making boxes a little deeper than that, closer to 12″ deep, to make it harder for predators to reach the nest. It’s important to rough up the interior of the box so that young chicks can climb out. You can use a chisel to gouge a “ladder” in the wood. This is especially important if Tree Swallows also use your boxes. (Simple nest box plans can be found at: www.sialis.org/plans.)
When placing your box, look for a site with short ground cover and scattered perch sites nearby.
Then comes the fun part: watching Bluebirds nest in your box! Bluebirds don’t mind minor intrusions, so if your box has a side opening, you can open it periodically to check on the nest. Monitoring lets you know how many eggs hatched and how many young actually left the box. When the young leave, you can remove the nest so that another pair can move in and start nesting. It is exciting to check on the progress in each box.
Happy Bluebirding!
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