I am also having the same problem with Mockingbirds. They are trying to take over my nestbox. The bluebird parents are defending their nest but can not leave to get food. I took down my mealworm and suet feeder to discourage the mockingbirds from hanging around but they are still trying to take over my yard. They do not have a nest in our yard. I do not know what to do about the mockingbirds. Help!!!!

Being how rare you say they are in your area, I am sure you want to make sure the Bluebirds stay and successfully raise their young in your yard. To do this you need to remove that box from that tree immediately and get it at least 15 ft away from the tree mounted on a slick metal pole (electrical conduit works best) and preferrably with a predator baffle. Raccoons and squirrels can and will get into the nestbox where it is mounted now. A Raccoon will even eat the mother bird if she is in the nest when they make their raid. Check out sialis.org for lots of useful information on Bluebirds and other cavity nesting birds. For the bluebirds sake I hope you take this advice. If they want this box, moving it will not interrupt their nesting. You can wait a few days until she is done making the nest but do move it before they eggs are laid if possible. Bluebirds will give you hours of enjoyment however if the nest fails they will leave your yard in search of a new nesting site. Good luck! Donna

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

Yes that is good they harassed the Grackle, but I have noticed that Robins are quite bossy in my yard. Bordering on obnoxious. Last year they commandeered the back garden, including the bird baths and Elderberries. They wouldn't let the other birds use these, which greatly reduced the interesting variety I had observed in previous years. They also pulled up ALL the mammoth Sunflower seedlings which was very weird! This Spring, when it was really dry, they also took over the front bird baths. The female was collecting leaves and other organic debris, dunking them to get them wet, and then carrying them off to the nest site. They wouldn't let other birds use the bird baths. So I added another bird bath in the side yard. Figure they can't boss all of them at once!