Update: they finally stopping fighting on the 8th day, May 6. I heard Tres making noise in the morning of May 6 and looked outside, saw male bb and TRES as expected. But, TRES didn't dive bomb bb as before, they just stared at each other, sometimes just 8 ft apart. No fighting the whole day, bb hang around for a lot longer period of time that day. May 7th, bb rarely showed up. TRES carried a few straw to build nest, then stopped. Today, rain. No activity The way they are going about building nest, I don't think they will ever finish:-(

Great news! Hope the swallows get down to nesting in the other box now! I don't have all my bluebird boxes facing the same direction either, I have two that face north, two that face east and three that face northeast, however the height of all of them are pretty much the same. Five of them face open land/yard and two of them have open land on one side of them and the yard on the other. It really is amazing how much you can learn here though even when you have been doing it for awhile, this will only be my third year hosting bluebird, if they nest that is. LOL! Donna

I just stumbled upon this post as I try to prevent the recurring problems from Barn Swallows again this year. Unfortunately, the image is no longer available and I cannot see how you hung the netting. We have a colony of Barn Swallows that roost at our apartment building each year. The landlord hates them, but a former tenant had posted signs everywhere about how it was illegal to remove the nests. It was only through my own research that I realized it was only illegal while eggs or babies were in the nests, and those tenants moved out this winter. In addition to nesting on top of our buildings lights, covered walkways, and eaves, my apartment and the one next door have outdoor entrances from our gorgeous courtyard and patio which have covered stairwells. Each year, the swallows fly through these two stairwells like its the Lincoln Tunnel, dive bombing anyone who tries to walk on the stairs. They build their nests on the outlet boxes or porch lights. The first summer we lived here, I thought it was really neat to have such a close view of their lives, as I would often sit on my steps and could watch the babies as they grew, taking great care to be quiet and non-threatening. However, I also found that my porch steps and exterior wall were covered with bird droppings. They are also very very noisy when there is an entire colony of them outside of your windows. All of the "teenage" birds hang out in one of our courtyard trees outside of my window, which my cat loves but can actually drown out any conversation or television in our living room. Then I experienced what I thought were bed bugs in our house. I had tiny bites head to toe and could constantly feel them crawling on me despite rarely being able to see anything. It got so bad that I was getting the bites infected from itching all the time, and I couldn't sleep because I could feel the bugs crawling on my skin as soon as I tried to relax. I finally captured a few and took them to the University's Department of Entymology, who identified them as bird mites. That experience was HORRIFIC. I was ready to burn our entire building down after reading that the bird mites multiply much more quickly than bed bugs and are nearly impossible to remove. Luckily, the mites died off when the birds finally left for the season, but I can no longer sit outside on my wooden stairs because I fear contracting them again. The next spring, I tried the knock-down method, just on my own stairwell. I would open my screen door 2 inches and use a broom handle to knock down the nests up to 7 times a day. The swallows became very agitated, and and two attacked my daughter's head when she got home from school one of the days. I couldn't sit inside and repeat this process forever, though, and they got their nest up one day while I was off at a 12 hour work shift. The outlet covers they use are too high up to see into, and I knew that some other nests already had eggs, so I couldn't knock it down, more out of compassion than fear of charges. This will be our third summer here. Our elderly landlord has given up trying to prevent them from nesting even in the building entryways. I have removed my porch light cover so there is no solid surface to nest on, but the outlet box cover is too high up and I can't put a ladder on the stairs to reach it. I have considered trying to throw a cotton ball soaked with peppermint oil up there (it has worked in the past for mice and spider problems), or hanging a bunch of cut aluminum as a mobile at the top of the steps (I have heard that the reflections off the metal scare birds off), but I simply can't go through another year of this if those methods don't work. I saw that I could use something to create a 45% slope where the nest to prevent them, but again... getting up there is an issue. I am curious to see how you used the mesh. Could you please share the picture again?

They are no different in Europe than anywhere else. It is true in the animal world it is hard to find a species that's completely innocent. Bluebirds will also kill and take over a nest if they have too. Barn swallows can do the same. I can give you a link with a story about swallows sealing a nest that a sparrow took over, and they sealed it with a sparrow inside (but the link is not in English). Swifts in Europe often take over a nest by killing the birds with its claws. The american cowbird is an angel compared to the European cuckoo bird :) I could continue with these kind of stories forever. Any way, I don't have a problem with your or anybody else's advise, but you should list all the possible solutions, not just YOUR favorite.