Very interesting behavior for the Wren. I have several bluebird houses and for some reason, they always choose one that is not meant for bluebirds! this year the male is guarding 2 that are identical and never meant for nests in the first place -ornamental. My husband had to put a door on the back of both so we could clean them out when the birds are done. The Wrens, Titmice and Black capped Chicadees all checked them out before the blue birds laid claim. Now Mr Blue Bird has appointed himself as backyard garden patrol and no other birds are allowed near those houses. He is as aggressive as some Mockingbirds I have seen. Here is a link that might be useful: Garden tips, birding, plant and art articles

Our bluebirds usually fledge on day 17 or 18, so it won't be long now! The parents might stop feeding them, or bring food and not let them have it, hovering in front of them and teasing. They will get hungry, and the parents will call to them. Eventually, each one will get up into the entrance hole (or window LOL), and peek out more and more, often going back in, while others take a turn. When you see toes on the windowsill, they are very, very close. Once I watched a little boy try to take off, but he would not let go of the box. Then he had one wing in and one wing out. It took him about a 1/2 hour to figure out what to do next, but he eventually made it to the trees. The parents will then guide them to the safety of the trees, either by calling them or leading them. Our best hope is that when they go, they can really fly, otherwise, they are vulnerable to predators; hawks and cats and such. Enjoy the show. And don't blink. We set up a video camera once, to try to catch one bluebird fledging. The whole 8-hour tape was absolutly nothing--no peeking, no toes, nothing. At about 7 hours & 45 minutes into the tape, a blur went by. That was it! BlueBars

That smaller egg is definitely a Cowbird egg. I got in a HEAP of trouble a few weeks back when I was trying to get some advice on this subject (see the reg. birding forum under "Cowbird Egg in Finch Nest - probably on about pg. 3 by now, for the fracas...), so tread very carefully. I - how shall I say - "took care of" the egg in question. Only you can choose what to do with your interloper egg, but be ready to get flamed by most of the GW birding world for your "illegal, unethical, criminal, (et al)" behavior if you mention it here.

Hi Pam and anyone else interested, After my last posting, we had a very high wind come up for about an hour. It blew some branches and clumps of leaves down all around our area, but no rain. It also blew down a large piece of wood that may have frightened the baby, but for whatever reason, the little bird went back under the fence to outside of our yard, and the parents seemed to keep him there this time. In fact, he quite moved on from being squenched up next to the fence, and I could not see him any more with a quick check, but I did hear him answering his mother, and the parents kept coming back and were in different trees to watch after him. They were actually in the trees they perched in to watch their original bluebird home, about 10 feet closer to the front of the house than they had been through this ordeal in our fenced back yard. This morning when I got up, the bluebird parents were not there nor was he. The parents did come back a couple of times when I was outside and did not seem distressed. They did not seem to be calling to him at all. I didn't hear them sing or call any at all. The trees they were sitting in as I mentioned before were closer to the front of my yard and I cannot see the birds from my back deck with binoculars like I could when they were looking after him in the shed. I didn't want to stay too close to see and frighten him into running again, so I missed seeing if they were going down and feeding him, if they had encouraged him to fly and if he did, or anything at all. All I know is that by about 10:00 a.m. when I went around to sit on my little concrete bench which is about 15 feet from the bluebird house, the mom and dad sat in the tree there where they always looked after their home like they were communing with me. Lol. I did hear what I know was some kind of baby bird high in the trees in my neighbor's yard right next to this area. Since I have not heard a baby bird calling from that area throughout this weekend, I'm just going to believe that it was him and that he was able to fly and get up there with his parents calling him at some time that I didn't see. He could almost fly the day before, so I'm hoping that they get him moved down the block to the little field where they moved and where his siblings are. I hope they bring all their babies back to see me some day the way another bluebird family did a couple of years ago. I'll try to let you know if I see all 5 of the babies some time, but there are lots of bluebirds around here, so it may be hard to tell. Last week, there was a whole family of about 7 bluebirds on my roof for about 30 minutes. Karen