The Bluebirds Won... With a Little Help From Their Friends

 

Finally, we at long last have bluebirds nesting in our birdhouse after nearly two years of struggles. Older readers will recall that we had a bad year a few years back and the raccoons decimated two batches of bluebirds within days of fledging, leaving behind only sad piles of blue feathers on the ground. Even though the birdhouse is not mine but belongs to a neighbor who does this as a hobby, I sought out revenge and installed a raccoon baffle underneath the birdhouse to prevent such a thing from happening. Since that time, the only birds showing interest are sparrows and we actively discourage them by removing their nests as soon as they build them.

This spring, I have probably removed more than 20 sparrow nests built in that box. You can tell them apart from bluebird nests because sparrow nests have more sticks and twigs in them while a bluebird nest is comprised mostly of grass. Still, the sparrow persisted. Then I shot that video I shared awhile back of the bluebirds putting the smackdown on the sparrows, chasing them from the air until they cowered from fright in the bushes. But then the bluebirds would fly away and the sparrows would go back to building their nest. Eventually they got an egg laid but my neighbor, who owns the bluebird house, came by and took the egg away. Perhaps the sparrows got the message because I hadn't seen them around for a few days.

Then a bluebird started spending his entire days beating his body against our dining room window as he evidently sought to prevent invaders from coming too close. I went out there and looked in the birdhouse and saw what I thought was a bluebird nest build on top of the old sparrow nest. I let them be and now several days later, looked in again and saw three bluebird eggs! For the first time in a couple years, we will hopefully have some young bluebirds to follow through their early days until the fledge and hopefully, this time the raccoon baffle will prevent their journey from ending in a bloody mess of feathers.

Because of our new garden, I also had to move the birdhouse last fall a bit closer to our house and directly out of our dining room window. So once the male bluebird is done spending days beating himself against his own reflection, I hope to go out and give the window a good cleaning so perhaps I can get some good pictures of the bluebirds fledging from the comfort of the dining room table.