Yes, the TRES will accept the spooker. How lucky you are to have chickadees nesting with you!!! I keep hoping that one year they will nest in one of my boxes.

Karen

Thank you Karen for you response. I will put up spookers tomorrow on the TRES houses. The TRES are such fun to watch. I had some BB's in a box right next to my house. They fledged 5 babies and we cleaned up the house right after that. Chichadees moved in and we have 5 eggs at this point. However, Mom & Dad BB are back at that house setting on top and looking in every morning. I do not want them to bother the Dees, so I have put up another house about 10 feet away hoping they will accept it. It's been about 24 hours and the BB's are still looking in at the Chickadees. I just love to watch all of them.

Rx, you might want to think about adding a hole reducer to the chickadee's box--even bluebirds will remove eggs from a nestbox if they want to use it badly enough.
Kathy

Rx, Kathy is right, put a hole reducer on the Chickadee box. You can find them at WBU and ask for the right size for a Chickadee. I don't know the size, but someone on this forum does. That will also keep the hosp out.

Rx and others: You speak of two things which I thought were the same thing. You speak of sparrow spookers and you speak of spookers. I've searched this site and a bunch of other sites and have found references to sparrow spookers but not spookers by them selves. I think I know what you are talking about but never the less are you referring to spookers as a piece of wood or cloth stapled, nailed, taped, etc. in front of the hole so the bluebirds have to fly up and under to enter the hole/nest.
Keith

Hey Keith,
You are right, they are the same thing. I use the terms interchangably. You can make your own or buy them already made. I get mine from www.sparrowtraps.net and have also bought a sparrow trap from them. I buy enough mounting brackets to go on each of my boxes, putting the mounting bracket on as soon as I make a house. I then add the spooker as soon as the first egg is laid. I have never had a blue bird not accept a spooker, nor have I ever had a sparrow try to claim a box after a spooker has been added. I had two spookers from last year and I bought 4 more this year thinking that six would be enough. However, I now have 10 boxes with blue birds and three with tree sparrows. I need to order (or make) seven or eight more to make sure I am covered.
Phil

"in front of the hole so the bluebirds have to fly up and under to enter the hole/nest".

Keith, I think you are talking about a wren guard. A sparrow spooker or spooker is shiny strips of silver stuff (I use silver wrapping paper)that will flap in the wind and the strips come to the top of the hole. This scares hosp. away, but the blues or tres do not have to fly up and under to get into the nest box. I hope I have not confused you more.

Karen

Karen:
No Karen I'm not confused, Phil explained what I couldn't see, my mind was focused on the sparrow spooker being called http://okeba.smugmug.com/photos/285883909_s7rVp-M-1.jpga spooker with the TRES vs a sparrow spooker with the DEEs, it appeared that Phil was talking about two different things when in reality he was talking about one thing with two different types of birds.

Is this what you call a wren guard, see link to picture posted on this thread. Six Bluebird eggs in one nest! The 6th and 10th picture on thread shows what I'm referring to. The image location for the 10th picture is also here {{!gwi}} its one of Okayebay pictures posted.

Keith

Yes, the wooden part on top of the box is the wren guard.