Linda, this is just totally amazing to me. I am in a new home where we have been only since October. We came to this home from one that was on an acre of forested land. We had all kinds of birds ... you name them, we had them. We enjoyed them all, fed them all, and had birdhouses up everywhere. Never once did I see anything that suggested rivalry for the nesting places. I did have some problems seeing BBs successfully raise babies, but that was due to hawks and cats.

I never knew about the problems with HOWRs and other 'unsociable' birds. I have a small backyard now, and I feed MANY goldfinches, and a few housefinches, hummingbirds, and the lovely BB couple that is raising 5 young right now. All is being done is calm and peace (now that a neighbor has carted off all the stray cats.) I do hope and pray that the 'anti-social' birds don't find my yard. I would be in tears!

I love the little TUTIs ... had them in great numbers at the other place. So sad that yours had so many problems raising a family.

Do you have feeders up for other birds?

Wow, Linda it is so incredible seeing that. We had a House Wren clean out the abandoned Chickadee nest that we had in one of the birdhouses out back. I saw the House Wren and then noticed the nesting material all over the ground. It got every single speck of that chickadee nest out of the nestbox too. In a way it was probably a blessing for the chickadees to have the HOSP drive them away, I am afraid the House Wren would probably have been a bigger threat once the eggs were laid. At least nothing died this way. I have left the 1 1/8 inch reducer on the box now though so if the chickadees would decide to nest there next year the HOSP cannot bother them however I will have to have a wren guard ready also.

Donna

Blumz,

I see that you live in zone 8a...where is that, exactly?

Besides 2 mealworm feeders (we only use one now), we have the same set up in the front of our house as the back: thistle feeder, 3 suet cakes, mixed seed (or maybe sunflower seeds right now, my husband takes care of that one. And 2 hummer feeders. We have 3 bird baths as well. We have an amazing variety of birds because of that and right now there are so many babies!!! It's scary to go outside for fear of being overwhelmed by all the new 'chicks on the block' :)

And in the last two years, I have cried quite a few tears over what I've seen. It goes on, I know that, and before we got the video cameras, we just didn't see the bad stuff. I CHOSE to put up the boxes with video cameras in them...THAT didn't increase the problems just educated me ABOUT them.

Blessings, Linda...

Donna, I think that chickadees only have one brood a year, I may be wrong.

Linda, amazing! Thanks for sharing, a video is worth a thousand words.

Linda, I think you are right about the Chickadees only nesting once per year. Ours started a nest but were chased off by HOSP before we could get the hole reducer on. I am thinking ahead to 2009 hoping to get a nesting then!

Donna

Linda, I live just outside of Birmingham, AL. We have a very wide variety of birds here, and I know I had sparrows at the other place (about 6 miles from where I live now), but I never saw them anywhere around any of the BB boxes.

I also had wrens - but mine were the Carolina Wrens ... do you know if they are a threat to BBs?

Blumz...I have Carolina Wrens nesting in a wall planter next to my patio...cute little birds that I don't think pose any threat to the blues..they are not cavity nesters as far as I know, and will build nests in the most unusual places!

Where in B'ham do you live? I'm in Meridian...my youngest daughter lived in B'ham for 5 years and loved it..and I sure loved visiting her...great shopping and restaurants!

I, too, hope never to see the "anti-social" birds in my yard...let's keep our fingers crossed for each other and those who are fortunate not to have contend with them...those stories just break my heart!

Donna

Carolina wrens (CAWR) pose NO thread to other nesting birds in nest boxes or shrubs. They get along well with other species.

As far as I know, CACH only nest once but I've also noticed a late nest (in my neighbors box last year) and think that maybe their first attempt failed for one reason or the other and they were going again in hopes of a successful clutch (which they did have). My dees usually nest at the same time or close to the same time as my bluebirds and brown headed nuthatches, late March, but the dees I found in my neighbors box last year were hatched in late May, early June which is why I think they failed on their first attempt.

I meant to say that CAWR pose no THREAT to other nesters. :-)

Donna, we live just northeast of B'ham - in Trussville. It is a beautiful area. People who have never been to Alabama are usually very surprised when they come here for the first time. It's not what they expect.

I'm somewhat familiar with Trussville, and yes, It's such a lovely area..My daughter lived in the Southside area, behind the Donnelly (?) house, in a very historic district..Many old, large oaks and pecan trees, which were a haven for so many birds...it was off of Highland Ave., not far from Bottega, one of my favorite restaurants! I miss not being able to get back as often as I would like.

Yep I'd say that's a frenzy!!!!!!!!
Cathy

The story doesn't end there, I'm afraid. As I said, I plugged the hole in the nest box where the TUTIs nested.

While I was distracted with them, a pair of bluebirds who have been hanging around here started a nest in my second video box which is in my back yard. I hadn't been paying enough attention because I had intended to put that one out of commission also.

By the time I turned my attention to that box, the nest was almost done. Mama has been working on the nest and at the same time working with Daddy to feed the 3 (maybe 4) fledglings from their first brood which grew up somewhere else (I'd seen the parents come to my feeder and carry mealies off beyond my yard a few houses/never did find where the nest was; I'm guessing they got evicted by our little brown bird 'friend'). So for the last few days I have been so happy to see the whole family in my backyard, all 5 or 6 of them. They go back and forth from the mealie feeder to the top of the nest box which is not far away.

Anyway, I WILL be monitoring the box as carefully as I can. My husband rigged up a cord that goes from the nest box to inside my kitchen. If I see a HOWR on the box or in the box, I pull on the cord and can shake the nestbox! Hope I never have to use it. The box is also easier to get to than the one in the front (no steps, yeah!).

I have evidence that having the whole BB family around will offer them a lot of protection. As I watched (and recorded), a HOWR went into the nest box & started to pick at the nesting material with the intention, I'm sure, of throwing it out the hole. However, 'The Family' showed up and blocked the HOWR IN the box. I swear that HOWR must sit somewhere and watch the BBs cause it had the guts to go into the nest while Mama is actively in and out of the nestbox while working on the nest. Actually prior to getting trapped in the box that time, the HOWR had gone into the box & started picking at the pine needles but I chased it out quickly.

So if you go to my dropshots page (guest password birdbrain), there's a new video 'HOWR gets trapped in box by bluebirds'. If you listen carefully to the video, you can hear the bluebirds 'chatting' while the HOWR quivers at the bottom of the nest. Not sure what the quivering is all about but I know that some animals (like cats, for instance) 'quiver' in anticipation of pouncing/striking. You can see that it tries to get out the hole twice to no avail (it seems to 'throw' itself at the hole).

I was afraid that one of the parents was going to go into the box and get hurt. Yes, maybe there would have been a battle and the bluebirds MIGHT have won but I didn't want to take the chance so I opened the back door (this was before I had my 'shaker cord'). My two male dogs got out in front of me and not only chased away the bluebirds but also the wren. Amazing video, though!

The nest is done now and when the first egg is laid, up goes the wren guard, and I go into active monitoring.

Blessings, Lina...

Here is a link that might be useful: Video HOWR gets trapped in box by BBs

I love the the cord system that your husband rigged up. Great idea! Of course it won't help if you aren't there, but still, if done enough, maybe the wren will give up. Sounds like you are going to be busy a gain. You'd better cancel all activities for the next month. :)
Tammy

It looks like you have created a situation when birds have to fight for the only birdhouse. You could let the wren use one box, and the bluebirds the other. This is why I have 14 birdhouses - everybody has one.

aleksandras..I don't want to speak for Linda but I do remember her saying in another post that she had 5 boxes for the wrens, but they still tried to take over her nestbox with eggs in it.
Tammy

Tammy is exactly right. We put up 5 boxes with wren-size hole restrictors if we needed them (used 2 bluebird boxes so those needed smaller holes) and put them in =prime= wren habitat. They didn't have to compete with any other bird.

Still don't understand the whys of what has gone on.

Linda...