Are you sure the completed nest has no eggs?Chickadees will cover their eggs when leaving the nest.DON'T poke around the nest to check.I always use a 1 1/8" reducer on all my houses that Chickadees choose.I have never had any abandon the nest,But I always install it after I am sure eggs have been laid.If if were me I would keep a eye on them for a few days.When you are sure eggs have been layed ,install the reducer.As far as the nest that has just been started,If the blues do take it over,a least the Chickadees can still use the empty box you have.I have never used a reducer during nest building.

According to my own personal research, the Gilbertson PVC would be the least appealing nestbox to House Sparrows (HOSP) I would call a wildlife number for TN to find any regulations on trapping. Most areas allow it, euthanasia is the bigger issue. Also, check out sialis.org for more on that. Yes, it is very much possible that a Rehab center would take the HOSP. I emailed my local Raptor Rehab Center, who are under 10 miles away, and they said they would love to take them, and that they infact trap for the bluebirds too! ~Tim! Here is a link that might be useful: House Sparrow Euthanasia

While letting them nest without allowing their eggs to hatch is better than allowing their eggs to hatch, it is still not a good solution. Remember they will quickly figure out if they are wasting time sitting on dud eggs and will just re-lay. You are correct that just evicting them could cause more trouble for the Bluebirds. As Donna said, please get a sparrow spooker up on the Bluebird box, and get yourself a Van Ert in-box trap asap. Eliminating the HOSP is really the only way to go, as they are extremely prolific.

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