You will know if your nest box is selected when they build in earnest. You just have to be patient and see what they decide to do. Just because they haven't started building a nest in one of your boxes doesn't mean they won't. They know your boxes are there, and even if they don't choose one of yours for their first clutch, they may come back and choose one for their second clutch. Wishing you a great Bluebird season.

It may still be a bit early. Mine usually don't get real busy till around this time. They are very early here this year.
Good Luck

Bluebird season is now arrived, if you want to know that your nest box is selected or not so you need to stay and watched all the activities done by them.

Hello Dermatologist 1. Welcome, I have not seen you before noticed you just registered this last week. How long have you been BlueBirding?

thank you to all who replied. I am a rookie at bluebirding and found this site very helpful. Still no nest building , but male bluebird has been checking out the boxes every morning. Do they continue this behavior all day/night? I rarely see them after dawn. My husband says they are using me as a hotel/restaurant...they come to feed every morning, love the meal worms and hop onto my regular bird feeder occasionally. Enjoying bluebirding!

dsu4neiman, it's really hard to know. Like Kendra said, though, if they don't choose you this time it looks like they'll probably be back to your boxes for their next clutch. Just keep enticing them! I have the same situation going on right now with my boxes. :o)
Carol

Very strange activity this morning.....male and female bluebird in and out of nest box , titmouse goes into nest box followed by female blue bird. Female flies out and both bluebirds hover around box flapping their wings, aggressive sounds for a few minutes until finally the titmouse escaped. Female blue bird picked up small stick, flew in box, maybe starting to build??? Nope, flew back out with stick in mouth, thoughts?

I think it really sounds like they want this box. If you are seeing them that much they probably don't have a nest elsewhere. Where are you located? Could be they are just starting to get busy building a nest. Here in Central WI my blues have a nest built and we are awaiting eggs...she doesn't seem to be in any hurry though on that count. They are still defending other nestboxes from the Tree Swallows even though they have their nest in another box. The box they are defending is 100 yards away and not within site of their nest box too!

I would love to have Titmice here so I would be thrilled to have one checking out my boxes. Maybe they will nest if the BLues don't.. Do you have just the one box? You may want to put up another if you can out of site of that first one. You may get the Tuti too!

Good luck!
Donna

Donna, thanks so much for your reply. I became interested last year when i saw bluebirds around my house (SE Pennsylvania). So I put up a nesting box, it was used by a carolina chickadee :-(
After reading this forum, this year I put up 3. As of today, they are still flying in and out of the one box, today I saw female pick up sticks, take them inside box and then fly out with the stick in her mouth...still no nest building. I did see male flying weirdly in circles around the house ...? mating??
What is interesting is that I never realized that so many birds were limited in location. Titmouse is common and they sing beautifully. Here's hoping!!

I would love to have chickadees in a nestbox. I had some that I thought might choose one of my boxes this spring, but the HOSP scared them away. I love chickadees as much or maybe even more than bbs.