We checked the box and the nest was flattened completely. We had gone out to purchase and prepare a new bluebird box and a new post as the old one was warping. We removed the old nest and took out the pool and house to dig a deeper hole for the new house. The parent stood by the entire time we did this. There were no babies left in the box, however, at the very bottom of the nest we did find one egg that did not hatch. We don't think this is why the parents kept coming back. We do think they just wanted to keep a claim on the box. Well, within two minutes (before we even got back to our house) the male flew back to the new house and both parents have been flying back and forth for the last four days. The male keeps looking inside the box and if any other bird attempts to come near, they are quickly chased away by the male. We are anxiously awaiting for them to start building their new nest. They may be still feeding their babies who should be pretty well on their own by now. It was interesting how they watched us as we installed their "new house" and immediately returned to it. I'll keep you posted and hopefully building will begin soon. We saw them do this before they built their last nest. It took days for them to actually start building. We checked and checked and finally started to see the female bringing in nesting material. Hope it happens soon. It has been very hot here - temperatures around 90 and above. Lots of baby cardinals, bluejayss, etc. coming around our feeders near our house. Everyone is quite busy! And the babies are quite insistent on being fed even though some are a large as their parents.

Hey -- Thanks for the IM about the bluebird nestling -- I can't log in to Garden Web for some reason, and haven't been able to for some time now. ANYWAY -- I could read the post. The poster says the baby was up in the opening looking out, calling out, and was not tangled in nest material. In addition, both parents are feeding. I would let it go, at least another day, I think. UNLESS they look and see that there is a lot of blowfly - one baby is vulnerable to an infestation, since he/she would be the only food source in the nest. They should be able to check the nest for blowfly, since they lifted the baby up and it did not fledge earlier in the day. In fact, I would go check for blowfly while the adults are watching me (probably having a fit at this stage in the nesting) and IF the baby DID fledge while looking for the blowfly, the parents would see it -- and it could hardly be called a PREMATURE fledging if it's nestmates went two days ago. Did they mention if this was a late hatching egg? Maybe that's the case and this kid is right on schedule. Hopefully, it will go on its own -- AND SOON! Malinda

Ohsoblue I will be pleasantly surprised if we get another nesting, but it could be in one of the neighbors yards, as they have all put up boxes, but I do not think they monitor very well. If they do come to our yard, I hope they choose the other box, as we have a camera in it. Mine are still coming back for meal worms, but the worms are just about gone and I doubt I will order more, unless I see a nest being built. It has been fun.

Hi Susan- Are you talking about the floor dimensions? They range according to what style of box you have (from 4" x 4" up to 5.5" I think). My other house is also decorative with a tin roof (smaller floor). That roof can definitely cause the heat to soar. My bluebirds used it before I got a proper bluebird box. Now, they definitely prefer the bluebird box. I'm going out of town for a couple of days, but would be happy to measure for you next week. In the meantime, ask on the other forum. There is a guy named Fred on there that is a total expert on bluebird box dimensions. Earlier in the season, there was a post about this that you may find helpful there. Is your hole diameter 1.5"? As you've read, there's not a lot of nesting going on right now. Nicole