Just checked again and the birds have left the nest. Don't see them anywhere on the ground. Maybe they fledged already and are in a tree? re: How is your box mounted? It should be on a slick pole with a predator baffle. It's a Peterson box on a pole and has a predator cone on the pole. I have no idea how the snake got in there. Been out there for eight years and has produced over 40 BlueBirds.

Katie, I replied to your other post but will reply here also..... I am so sorry about that baby Blue. You would think they would have kept feeding it unless something was wrong with it that you couldn't see but the adults could. I do have some advice though if this ever happens again. I had heard from someone that has been Bluebirding for quite a few years that he thought the adults forgot about two babies that remained in the box when the rest had fledged, so what he did was open the door of the box and propped it open. It worked for him, the adults then started feeding the ones that hadn't fledged yet. Not sure if this would always help but can't hurt. You wouldn't want to do this say at day 16 or earlier but by day 18ish, I would think it would be ok. You would think at day 20 that little one would have been a pretty good flyer! It is important not to check after day 12/13 to prevent premaure fledging but it is also important to keep track of everything. If that baby was at day 20 and the others fledged you could have checked on things cause by that time they should be able to fly well. Normally once they are about 17 days old they should be able to fly ok (not all the time though) You didn't do anything wrong though so don't feel bad that way. It is hard though if you think you could have helped and didn't but it sometimes is worse if you try to help and things go wrong cause then it does seem like your fault. kwim? Donna

2 of the babies from our last clutch are still hanging around. They will beg, but I haven't observed the parents feeding them anymore. Interesting thing happened yesterday. There are 4 new eggs which the female is incubating. I observed one of the fledglings enter the box, and he/she never came out! It was late afternoon...quite warm...Was he snuggling with the female? couldnt guess. I will add that during a very cold spell in the winter, every evening 5 bluebirds would arrive and crowd into the house. In the morning, they would fly out, one by one, wake up a little, then fly off. But every evening, they would arrive, one by one, and go back into their "bedroom " together!

I have had two set of babies this summer and each nesting has left one baby dead. The baby is fully feathered so makes it a long way to just not make it out of the nest. Any ideas why? I feed the parents mealworms to help keep the babies feed and cleaned out box between nesting. Thanks for any ideas. Teresa