sharpgirl, I can only share my experience w/ BB. For several years I put up houses built (I thought) to BB specs. No takers. And because I had seen BB on my farm I knew they were around, but I didn't know where they were nesting. Until one day I noticed that the 'fake' hollow owl I had attached to the roof peak of my small barn, had BB's coming and going around it. BB's had pecked a hole in the chest of owl and apparently built a nest inside. This is now the 2nd year that they're nesting there. Their nest is about 15-18 ft. off ground, 100 ft. from a feeder but hidden by a bldg., hole faces South, slightly southeast. BB's perch on barn roof before they enter the hole. Both male and female feed the babies. Area of nest is surrounded by either mowed pasture or lawn. No close trees for 50-60 ft. I overflow a large watering trough (for horse) several times a day and the BB's show up to bathe and frolic in the water, if it's warm outside. So my bluebirds outsmarted me and made their own personalized nest and they must like it cause they've returned this year. Good Luck with attracting your own BB's. PS/I'm in zone 9B Central Fl.

Thanks for all the suggestions and encouragement. I have decided to follow your advice and take the trip to Ireland if my daughter is still wanting to. To answer some of the comments. I do have a DRST and in the past have had a lot of luck with it later in the year. I have been using mixed bird seed as bait but seem to catch mostly house finches and song sparrows in it. Also, I have a squirrel that regularly cleans out the bait. This morning I tore up a couple of slices of white bread and sprinkled them around the trap. Hopefully that will get the HOSP interested. I have some popcorn that I will also try. I do have a dummy nest box. It has the screws for the Van Ert installed on the rear of the door and last year I caught about a dozen in it. Trouble is right now the blues are protecting that one too. A couple of weeks ago I bought and installed a slotted opening (Kentucky style) box and the blues seemed to like it a lot. I also bought an in-box camera but when I went to install it in the slotted box, I found the pitch of the roof was not steep enough and the camera was level with the opening. I was afraid the birds would bang into it when they entered so I replaced that box with one I had made that had a steeper roof and featured the more common 1 1/2 inch round opening. The camera worked fine and the blues seemed to cope with the design change. But then I decided ** to convert that box to the slotted style, so I removed the door, cut one of identical width and installed the new door, leaving the slot at the top. Again the birds seemed to have no problem handling the change. I still have the door with the round hole opening and can switch back in a matter of minutes if an unexpected complication arises. Right now the only thing I can see is that the steeper pitch of the roof brings the overhang down a bit more than the store bought slotted box did. The adult blues have no problem flying up and under the overhang but I wonder if it will be a problem for the nestlings when they fledge. Since 2005 I have had 55 babies fledge from my one box and every one has flown out and up to the trees (except one time when I had the box turned too much toward my house and two out of four flew up on the deck). But I wonder if this overhang might cause them to fly down on the grass. The HOSPs do seem curious about the box, whether the opening is round or slotted. It may be because it is so prominently placed. Right now they seem content to nest behind the shutters on my neighbor's house. I appologize to you Donna for such a lengthy post on your thread. But I have been itching to talk about my new boxes (and my HOSP concerns) and this seemed like a good place and time to do it. If anyone has walked down this path before and can forsee problems vis-a-vis the interchangable doors, or fledging problems with the overhang -- or anything else, I would welcome your comments/suggestions/advice. **I really hope to get a picture of two or more speckled heads peeking out at the same time on fledge day, but not at the expense of my birds. Dave

I live in a suburban type neighborhood but with houses on only one side of the street. Accross the street from me is a big (16 acre) open park and directly next to the park is another heavily wooded area which is a county nature preserve. My neighbors have the typical no garden landscape but here I have planted heavily in fruiting shrubs like viburnum, serviceberry, shrub dogwoods, Winterberry, blueberries, and many others that attract backyard songbirds. I have no bluebirds and no tree sparrows have ever come to my nestboxes although I do see them flying overhead. Although I have had the male wren building fake nests for 4 years, last year was the first year he found a mate and they fledged two broods. That year the chicadees were nesting less than 20 feet away from the wrens. They never bothered each other. This year the wren is nesting in the front yard in a slotbox house that is very near my blackberries. The chicadees are in the backyard in a box very near my old cherry tree. The nestboxes are not in sight of each other but really they are not that far from each other either as I do not have a huge yard. House wrens apprear to be rare here. It was years of me planting shrubs to make the yard more attractive to sonbirds before I ever saw a wren here. I know that this is not a polular opinion here on the bluebird forum but I really like the house wrens.

Kendra, I used to cut crescent entrances into my natural gourds. These were afull 3 inches wide across the bottom and they are 1 and 3\16 tall(1.188 to be exact) Well I noticed through binoculars while watching my martins enter these that they needed nowhere near the full 3 inches wide. The original crescent was developed by a guy in Florida to stop starlings and it works pretty good but starlings have been known to get through it especially when folks add porches outside for them to land on. This helps the starlings because it allows them to use their big ol' chicken legs to help push their way through. The original crescent is shaped just like a crescent moon kendra but as you can see mine is not. Once I started cutting down on the width and slightly raising the height from 1.188 to 1.205(closer to 1 and 7\32)I began to notice that the martins had a super easy time getting inside with or without a porch like in the video. At the same time the murdering starlings were having more trouble and believe me Kendra the starlings cannot(will not)get into this entrance and even porchless like this as you can see is easy as pie for the martins!! This entrance plate is available through S&K Manufacturing and my entrance is now incorporated into a new line of plastic gourds for martins also made by S&K. They are called the BO-11 and the BO-9 gourds and my entrance is called the clinger entrance but in these new gourds it is porched. Most folks like to see the martins hanging out on the porches is why but as you can see here the martins don't really need that porch as long as they have a place to prop their tail like on this natural gourd of mine. Now..Once I finally settled on the size the clinger entrance is today I tested it very thoroughly on all sizes of Purple Martins that nested here at my 120 plus pair colony. At the same time I tested it on all Starlings I caught in my Controller starling trap that is mounted next to a big tree about 180 feet from my martin gourd racks. See martins don't like their house\gourds near trees and that is how you keep from trapping the martins with a controller trap. Starlings on the other hand like a house near a tree and the tree branches nearly touch the side of my trap. I have never seen a martin land on it kendra but it is a starling's undoing. They simply have to check it out and once they enter the big ol' inviting 2 inch round hole it is the last hole they ever enter. This trap I have had now for 10 years has helped the native birds re-cover here. When I first moved here Starlings and House Sparrows creaked and cheeped everywhere around my place. The Bluebirds were few..the Red Headed Woodpeckers were nonexistent and the few martins I strted out with were in constant battles with both these foreign birds to survive. Well it is not that way anymore thnaks to the Spare-o-Door trap,my Controller trap,and now this cool entrance. There is a fine line between the largest male Purple Martin(they tend to be slightly larger than females)and the smallest female starling. That is the zone you must exploit in order to allow easy martin entry by all sizes of martins(male and female) yet stop even the smallest female starling and my clinger entrance does that so effectively and I can watch the martins do this and smile all day long because I know they are protected fully from their number one enemy..the European Starling. I hope that someday round holes for martins will be a thing of the past and just as the 1 and 1\2 entrance hole has saved the bluebirds from the starlings I want to see the clinger entrance do the same for the Purple Martins. It works so sweet kendra and all as you can see in the video. No starling that I have ever watched try to enter this has been able to. The fear of entrapment is created and they simply cannot get their ugly fat bellies inside because of the width at 2 and 5\16. It does not allow them the room to flatten out and squeeze in and it is so funny watching them try. They get up to their shoulders and then their chicken like big feet and legs end it for them. Martins are streamilned birds that are designed to zoom through the air after insects and they have small feet and legs designed for perching not walking. Because of this they simply land,tuck,and BINGO they are in!! I love it so much! By the way Kendra..I had 3 starlings in my trap the last two days as they are seeking nest sites now that spring is here in western Ky. Not one of them could come close to getting out of the clinger entrance I have mounted on the side of the holding cage of my trap. Not one. Now if this entrance will stop a trapped starling from exiting it is all the starling resistent entrance you will ever need for martins or bluebirds for that matter. I have some of these clinger entrances on my BB Boxes on my Bluebird trail and they work fine. Now if only we could find a way to make an entrance to keep House Sparrows out but unfortunately they are smaller than bluebirds or martins. Shame and thank you for the compliment on my entrance kendra..I am so proud of it and what it is starting to do for the Purple Martins in this country. They are worth protecting and my few years of designing,testing,and perfecting this cool entrance shape are paying off for the most beautiful swallow in the world. The All American God Among birds..the Amazing,Fast Flying,Rocket Diving Purple Martin!! Love them so much...Mike