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Baby Blues gone

11 years ago

It is mid-July, and to my surprise, Bluebirds (Eastern) have nested in a wren box I recently put up on my deck. This location has been ideal for watching and monitoring! I arrived home from work today to find all of the babies and the one unhatched egg completely gone. I am pretty sure it was a blacksnake because I found it climbing up the pole later that same day. I was surprised he climbed to the second story deck, but realize that I will have to put up snake guards in the future. My questions are 1)does the loss of young produce a response in the adults that will cause the female to become fertile and ready to breed again pretty quickly? 2)If so, is there a chance that the pair will use the same nest? 3)Should I clean out the box asap, or leave the old nesting material (this box is shallower than a regular bluebird box with not much room to build a new nest on top of the old one)?

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dzyg
11 years ago
So sorry this happened...yuck..I so would not want to see a snake like that! When bluebirds loose a clutch, depending on the time of year they do normally renest. It is getting late in the season now though so they might and they might not renest. However they rarely renest in the same box they have had a failed nesting in.

Your nestbox is a prime and easy target for snakes or raccoons, they are both great climbers especially on a wooden post! Boxes should be mounted on slick metal poles like conduit with a predator baffle like stovepipe for raccoons and if you have snakes you need a kingston snake guard to prevent them from climbing up. If you want to continue to have a nestbox on your deck you should mount a piece of conduit there having the nestbox at least 5 feet up from the deck rail with both of the baffles I mentioned. Check out sialis.org for information about both of them. They are both highly effective.

If you cannot add a snake and raccoon baffle I would take the box down to prevent further losses.

Better yet would be to place a bluebird nestbox on a slick metal pole (with both baffles) on the ground at least 50 feet from your woods/brush (to prevent wren attacks) in an open mowed grass area and hopefully the blues will find it and renest for you. Good luck!!

Donna
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