To all posters: especially Jillmcm an vonyon, thank you so much for your input on this subject. I live in a wooded area. I love watching all the wildlife,- turkey, deer, and especially the birds, we have blue bird, martin and wren houses, and several bird baths. I have suet feeders, finch feeders, and a hopper feeders, along with several bird baths. I enjoy the birds so much, and spend many hours watching them. Then last summer a pair of phobees built a nest on a window sill on the second floor of our house. What a delight! They would swoop down and eat tons of insects. When I saw a hawk in a tree next to our house eyeing the baby phobees, it was too much, I went over the edge. I was obsessed with how to keep them out of our yard. All of the posts on this forum have been so helpful to putting things in balance. I am going to rethink my pattern of feeding the birds. Although the Phobees don't eat at bird feeders,they do use the bird baths, and the mere fact that there is a concentration of birds, attracted the hawks. By the way, the hawks nested in the woods next to us, and I heard the baby hawk calling after it's mother for food and say them hunting together, so I know they have to eat too. Thank you, again!

I would think they would still be feeding it, they won't forget there is still one in there. They do sometimes withold food though to try to get them to fledge. Last year however I did find one fully feathered TRES baby in the nestbox when I went to clean out the boxes. I think it just couldn't get up and out the hole and the adults must have given up on it. The box did not have kerfs (built by some boy scouts) but it never caused a problem before, hole isn't more than 5 inches from the floor. I suppose I should have added some kind of ladder to the inside to prevent this from happening again but I never did. Most of our boxes here have six nestlings each, only three with five, one has seven. Last checked that one on day 12 and they all looked fine, I am hoping all seven make it and fledge, they are on about day 15 today so later this week they should be fledging. I have one box on day 17 right now and they are majorly peeking. They are in Gilwood boxes so multiple babies can look out at the same time. Donna

Yes Lexa, HOSP will even nest in spruces! Tight evergreens are places HOSP LOVE to build their domed nests. It's angering. But take note that House finches STRONGLY resemble HOSP from afar. Make sure you here the distinctive chirp before using any guns! We had some HOFI nest around here. The HOSP don't nest in the pines near this property anymore. And I'm also overwhelmed seeing all the juveniles. They truly breed like RATS! ARG! 2 neighbor's they nest at...and are of course fed all summer... :/ What's worse is now I have NO decoys. I have 2 bb guns. Both miss about 90% of the time. I have shaky hands too. I was lucky enough to nail one juvie when the flock showed up in my yard, and one year nailed a male HOSP. I'm gonna resurrect my DRST again in a week or two. My neighbors have parties around the 4th so it would be a bad idea any time soon. I wish I had a better gun! D$5n HOSP! HATE EM! The 5 nestlings appear to be doing good. Mom and Dad are feeding well or so it would seem. Can't wait to finally have some juvie Bluebirds to counteract all these HOSP! ~Tim~

I started reading this thread just out of curiosity, and to see if I might learn something new. Susan, please don't misunderstand, but your post made bird feeding sound like rocket science! ;-) I kept reading and saw Stargazzer's comments and that is my philosophy exactly: One thing you need to know is we feed birds for our pleasure. I feed the birds for my pleasure. I hang two feeders, one a large heavy wire cylinder type and the other is a Finch feeder. I buy BOSS for the wire type and Niger (thistle) for the other one. The large one hangs from a tree which is mulched all around, so not killing any grass. If you have Goldfinches in your area be sure you get a feeder that is for Goldfinches. It usually has a yellow top, and the package will show the GFs hanging upside down to feed. (The perch is above the hole.) Again, that is for my pleasure, but also keeps other birds from devouring the expensive Niger. House finches, etc. can't do that little acrobatic stunt. I don't put out any bread or scraps of any kind; that would only attract more grackles and other "bottom feeders.") I don't feed in the Winter, because of my wobbly knees and legs, which could cause a fall in the snow and ice. I attract several kinds of birds including those pesky grackles, which I despise the way most folks despise squirrels. This year I am seeing Red Wing Blackbirds, which I haven't seen before. Very amusing though to see a grackle trying to hang on to the side of the big feeder, with wings flapping. Because I'm in a newly developed area, we don't have squirrels because the trees aren't big enough to attract them I guess. Doesn't stop the birds though. Don't take bird feeding too seriously! Just enjoy! Hang some feeders and see what you get. Fine tune as you go, Sue