Thanks for the reminder Ray. While we never let our cat outdoors, a lot of the neighbors do. I have a good sized (8") wobbling stovepipe guard and have never had a cat, raccoon, or snake get into one of my boxes. The conduit pipe and good guard are extremely important.

Hi Kathleen- I'll address you since the other posts are old. I am so very sorry that you have experienced this. Did you read what the responses were to the older post of one that lost a bluebird on the nest? I would just repeat everything that they said. If absolutely no sign of injury, I would suspect lawn pesticides, but considering what happened to the 1st person that posted & didn't see signs of injury on her bluebird, it did turn out to be house sparrows. I would highly suspect this. Do you think the female is dead too? If so, again I would be suspicious of HOSP. Answering your question, the male would not starve himself, nor is he able to brood eggs. If the female died too, the eggs wouldn't have hatched because the female is the one to incubate the eggs. She has a brooding patch on her lower abdomen that the male doesn't have. If she is alive, she may not be returning to nest because of the failed nest situation, especially if there was foul play. Make sure you know that she is not returning before removing the nest & eggs. If she is alive, she will probably try to find a new mate. Without repeating too much, make sure your birdhouse is on a pole with a baffle & put a sparrow spooker up after the 1st egg. If you know for sure that the nest has been abandoned & you don't get any activity, you may want to change the location of the box (birdhouse). If you immediately get a house sparrow setting up shop, then you'll know that was most likely the culprit. Again, if female is not returning, now would be the time to get a Van Ert trap for your house to trap the male & female HOSP. If you do, make sure you are monitoring every hour if possible so you don't trap a native bird. They can die in there if without food for too long. One of the previous posts left a website for the Van Ert trap. Again, the previous posts left great advice for your situation. This site is not as active as it used to be for bluebirders, so you may want to post to bluebirdnut.com. Lots of bluebird experts are on that site like this one used to have. That's where I go whenever I need advice. BTW, I lived in Atlanta for ten years (live in AL now). Very sorry to hear about your bluebird tragedy. Hope you'll have another pair come for a future nesting, but definitely get that sparrow spooker!

Katie, I replied to your other post but will reply here also..... I am so sorry about that baby Blue. You would think they would have kept feeding it unless something was wrong with it that you couldn't see but the adults could. I do have some advice though if this ever happens again. I had heard from someone that has been Bluebirding for quite a few years that he thought the adults forgot about two babies that remained in the box when the rest had fledged, so what he did was open the door of the box and propped it open. It worked for him, the adults then started feeding the ones that hadn't fledged yet. Not sure if this would always help but can't hurt. You wouldn't want to do this say at day 16 or earlier but by day 18ish, I would think it would be ok. You would think at day 20 that little one would have been a pretty good flyer! It is important not to check after day 12/13 to prevent premaure fledging but it is also important to keep track of everything. If that baby was at day 20 and the others fledged you could have checked on things cause by that time they should be able to fly well. Normally once they are about 17 days old they should be able to fly ok (not all the time though) You didn't do anything wrong though so don't feel bad that way. It is hard though if you think you could have helped and didn't but it sometimes is worse if you try to help and things go wrong cause then it does seem like your fault. kwim? Donna

The Tubex tree shelters I've used are made of a thick, flexible plastic. You actually DON'T want to protect the trees from cold. If you do, it can confuse the tree so it doesn't go dormant. Improvised solutions work as long as they aren't black. Really, any color other then black...black heats up too much. Also they should be wide enough not to rub against the trunk. You also don't want to protect the tree from snow...most trees like being covered in snow...it's great insulation. As ken_adrian likes to say "trees aren't babies". What tree shelters were invented for is to protect trees from deer. They can also protect trees from rabbits, winter wind, sun scald, and idiots with weed whackers. (The last is important if you ever use paid landscapers or teenagers for garden work.) There are theories they help trees grow faster, keep a single leader while young, etc., but those seem insufficiently proven sales pitches. I mostly use the them to protect trees from rabbits and accidental weed whacker injury. I've used the tubex version and am experimenting with pool noodles. I *DID* try the tubex tree shelter on conifers one year...I think the protected trees had a better survival rate, but ended up looking a little mangled. As far as how tall they should be...do you have deer? That makes a difference. Take the maximum depth of snow in your area, add how high a rabbit can reach (say two feet?) or a deer (if deer are a problem there). That's the height the tube should be.