I came up with a method that seems to work, and everyone is happy and full. I feed them both. I started feeding the Robins up closer to the house. If they come near where the bluebirds are, they get yelled at and scared away. If they stay up close to the house, they get extra. They learn fast. What they don't know is that the best worms go to the blues. *G* They don't need as many since they only have the one mouth to feed. Speaking of which....I hoping the weather will be cooperative tomorrow and I can get at least one picture of the little one. I haven't checked on it in several days, but Mom & Dad both have been staying close by lately and they both go in and out of the box a lot. Last year all my clutches fledged at 2 weeks. That would be Saturday. But I think this one will be slowed down by the cold. Tomorrow will give me a better idea. Thanks for all the ideas you sent me. I really appreciate the help you always offer. tara

i was reading this thread with interest. i have a situation where it appears i have 8 bluebirds who have hatched in one nest (thursday may 2, they were born). it may be 9, it's hard to tell. while monitoring the nest in late april i noticed what appeared to be eggs missing from the 3 that had been laid earlier in that week. the reality was that the eggs had been pushed down deeper into the nest and covered with pine straw. the mother kept coming back (may have been another species coming in and covering the egg with straw? i have seen no house sparrows here at all) and eventually she started laying again. turns out, there were 10 eggs total in this nest when she was done! i guess five from the first attempt and 5 after that. bottom line, 8 babies are in there now. i'm putting out meal worms twice a day and making sure there's lots of water nearby in the bird bath, and plenty of shelled sunflower seeds for the parents nearby in that feeder. anyone ever seen or heard of a situation like this?

I have the same situation, except with two nests in boxes that are about 25 feet apart. This is the first year I have seen this behavior. They started building in one box, but after only one day a HOSP pair decided to take over the box, so the bluebirds moved to the other box. Then an even stranger thing happened. After two days, (and NO nest building) the HOSP pair just decided to leave! I have never seen this happen before, and I don't know why they moved on. (Maybe they could read my mind that a trap was in their future??) But I think this is the reason the bluebirds are building in both boxes - to try to control the territory. It will be interesting to see which box they choose.

Tim, I was a little confused too on your paired boxes. I gather at one site of the two boxes you have a pair of blues that wouldnt let TRES nest that close. What about the other two paired boxes, what is in them? At a park near our home where I have nestboxes I had two sets of paired boxes at 15 feet apart. So I had two boxes 15 feet apart then over 300 feet and not within site another pair of boxes 15 feet apart. I've only had one box ever used as nothing would let another bird nest even that close. Here at my house I have paired boxes 25 feet apart and get Blues and TRES nesting fine with that distance in between them. So around here you need at least 25 feet to get both Blues and TRES, I do know other places have different results though. Late this Spring I moved my park boxes approx 40 feet apart as I am fine if we get two pairs of TRES in each set of boxes. Will see what happens next Spring with them. I too have a TRES box with 7 in it, however the all hatched the other day! Here is a pic from Sat.... If all my TRES hatch we will have 54 hatchlings out of 9 boxes!