Sorry to hear this Tim. If I were you I would remove the HOSP nest and hope the blues return. I doubt you will get the female HOSP now that the male has left. In my experience with TRES I see them highly motivated to run off any bird in paired boxes when they are nest building. Once they are laying/incubating and feeding nestlings they focus much more on that then defending the other box. I have lots of paired boxes and that is what I have found anyway. As far as the Blues letting the HOSP take over the box...well they know they cannot win I suppose, no eggs or nestlings to defend so it is hard to say. I think each bluebird is different too on how hard they defend things. This year I have a hugely territorial male, never had one like this before. He has chased off my chickadees and is trying to chase off all the Tree Swallows in the yard. He is defending four nestboxes, two of these are 65 yards or so from the box they have eggs in. Nothing will be nesting in the box paired 35 feet from the blues nestbox...he won't allow it. The chickadees weren't even house hunting, just trying to eat out of the birdfeeders and he won't allow it. A couple times I have seen a HOSP come to the feeder and I quickly try to get the bb gun but the Male bluebirds chases it away before I can even think about it. He won't stop chasing until it is out of the yard too. I am curious to see if he calms down a bit once the eggs hatch which should be next week. Good luck to you, hope your blues can get down to business now that that HOSP is gone. Donna

Kudos to you for getting them to a rehabber!! That is awesome. Sorry your male wouldn't take care of them though...Maybe he was young and needs to learn?? Donna

So sorry to hear of the loss of the babies and Male BB. How sad. Do you have a sparrow spooker on the box? Was there any sign of trauma to the males head? What about the babies, do they look pecked at all. If it was a HOSP you will see peck marks on the babies and the male, it is very evident when they die from a HOSP attack. If there are no signs of trauma it is hard to tell. If the female does not take the dead babies out you should, also check for blowfly larva in the nest, I had them kill two 6 day old babies last year and I had to do a nestchange in order to save the one remaining baby. Good luck, I hope the lone baby survives, Momma shouldn't have any problems providing for just one. If you don't have a spooker up get one up asap. Donna Here is a link that might be useful: sight with info on spookers and blowfly

Well I just keep watching them this morning and they are both fliting all over down there, wing waving like crazy. The momma did finally figure out the mealworm feeder this morning. I have it clamped on a small 3 step stepladder and this morning I took it off and just put the dish on the stepladder and she ate out of there. Then I put the feeder back onto the ladder and put the dish in it and left. She flew to it and then away but later I saw her go into it. Yeah! I am going to check the nest today and see what if anything is up in there as I haven't checked it since Friday. I am still not convinced that this is the original male but then maybe I am just overreacting to things. Donna