Ann, Sorry for the loss. This is a terrible feeling. I'm not sure what predator did this. It could be a raccoon or a cat, or a snake (I don't have much experience with snakes) but it sounds as though it is something that couldn't get into the box at the nestlings. Of course, maybe they had their fill when they ate the parents. It doesn't sound like another species of bird as they have specific ways that they kill and this is not what I have seen. You can post the question on the bluebird forum to see if anyone with more experience can advise you. I know you want to know what did this, but for your own peace of mind, I would clean the box out and reinstall it on a slick metal pole with a baffle. The idea of the baffle is that it wobbles on the pole so that any predator that jumps up onto it will be tipped off. You can use electrical conduit for the pole. This is easy to pound into the ground and to move if you need to mow (provided no one is nesting in it). Another thing to do is to take some paraffin wax and wax the top of the box and about an inch down the sides inside. You can also do this with vaseline, just be careful to wipe off the excess to avoid having the birds get any on their feathers. This will prevent wasps from nesting in boxes. All of these measures can help to prevent this from happening again. Good luck. Here is the web site with directions for making a baffle. They are inexpensive and easy to make. Here is a link that might be useful: predator baffle

I have been shooting about 60ft from my window to the bird feeder in the maple tree. Yesterday I got the crazy idea to take an old pipe garment rack I had and set it about 15ft outside my bedroom window, then hang a feeder on the rack. first I hung a simple tube type seed feeder, then I got the idea to also hang a tube type thistle feeder. While i was hanging the thistle feeder on one end of the rack two chickadees came down and landed on the rack about 3ft from me and as soon as I started to walk back in the house a Titmouse landed on the seed feeder to be my first customer. That Titmouse remained there long enough to allow me to get in the house and snap a picture. Within the first hour after I hung that feeder i had chickadee's, Titmouse, Nuthatches and a small female downy woodpecker who seems to have taken it over as her personal feeder.

Lovely! You have a handsome Cardinal. Titmouse is spoiled rotten and throwing out allot of corn. We don't have these here.

You never know when these rascals are going to show up. Yesterday I didn't have my camera on me and an indigo bunting flew past me not once, but, twice. Two days ago I heard Bobwhite blasting as if speakers were on in my house and as I crept into another room and looked outside, there he was... standing on my deck rail. As soon as my camera got into view he took off like a bandit. Darn! Dax This post was edited by gardener365 on Sun, Jun 9, 13 at 15:14