{"id":6397,"date":"2018-03-16T22:06:13","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T22:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/?p=6397"},"modified":"2018-03-16T22:07:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T22:07:21","slug":"bluebird-time-get-boxes-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/bluebird-time-get-boxes-now\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Bluebird Time! Get your boxes up NOW!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/GilbertsonNestBox-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"GilbertsonNestBox\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1750\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Just when you think you can&#8217;t take anymore of this cold, windy, dull, winter &#8211; Lo and behold, a beautiful flash of blue shows up in your yard! Your senses perk up, a smile comes over your face and then you start to think&#8230;<strong>BLUEBIRDS<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<h4>Bluebirds are Choosing Nesting Sites, NOW!<\/h4>\n<p>Most people don&#8217;t realize that our Eastern Bluebirds start choosing nesting sites now (end of February, beginning of March) &#8212; earlier than most other bird species. Although actual egg laying and incubation cycle begins later in the spring, nest boxes should be up and ready!!!<\/p>\n<p>Male bluebirds, alone or often already paired off with last season&#8217;s mate, will shortly start defining and defending their nesting territory for this year with their gentle song and watchful eye. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<h4>Want Bluebirds to Choose Your Backyard?<\/h4>\n<p>If you are one of the lucky, <em>lucky folks<\/em> who have Bluebirds grace their yard (we are truly envious!), this is your friendly reminder that it&#8217;s time to be a good landlord.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are a few things to keep in mind:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Start with a clean box!!!<\/strong> Clean out prior nesting debris in existing boxes, NOW!!! Scrub out the interior with soapy water and rinse well. You&#8217;ll also need to clean the box a day or two after each brood leaves. Bluebirds normally have 2-3 broods each season. Rule of thumb: <strong>Unless there&#8217;s an active brood in your box, it should be empty and clean<\/strong>. This makes Mama happy and increases the lifespan of your box.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Position boxes in open areas at least a hundred yards apart<\/strong>. If placing new boxes, be sure they face the openness of a yard, meadow or field.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use Sparrow-resistant boxes<\/strong>. Keep House Sparrows out of nest boxes!! This is critical to a Bluebird&#8217;s nesting success!! We recommend Slot Boxes or the <a href=\"http:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/portfolio-items\/gilbertson-bluebird-nest-box\/\" title=\"Gilbertson Bluebird Nest Box\">Gilbertson Nest Box<\/a> for this purpose. Otherwise, please be diligent landlords and regularly monitor for pesky Sparrows. They are competitors and predators of Bluebirds, so we can&#8217;t emphasize this point enough!!!!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mount bird houses on poles with snake baffles<\/strong>. Even if you don&#8217;t see snakes in your yard, <em>they are more common than you think<\/em> and love plump little nestlings for dinner. This will definitely optimize the number of healthy fledglings you facilitate. Don&#8217;t underestimate this detail.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Offer our freeze-dried meal worms<\/strong> in a separate feeder, <strong>away from all your other feeders.<\/strong>Although Bluebirds aren&#8217;t considered traditional backyard feeding birds, this can be an added incentive for them to choose your yard during nesting season!!!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more resources, check out and join <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nabluebirdsociety.org\/\">the North American Bluebird Society<\/a> and our local<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mdbluebirdsociety.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Maryland Bluebird Society<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The staff at The Backyard Naturalist are always happy to answer any questions to help enhance your Bluebird experience. Keep us posted!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nabluebirdsociety.org\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/NorthAmericanBluebirdSociety.png\" alt=\"North American Bluebird Society &#038; The Backyard Naturalist\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1744\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mdbluebirdsociety.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/MarylandBluebirdSociety-TheBYN1.png\" alt=\"Maryland Bluebird Society &#038; The Backyard Naturalist\" width=\"91\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1746\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For more reading and resources about the Eastern Bluebird resurgence, continue to <a href=\"http:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/bluebird-time-part-two\/\" title=\"Bluebird Time: Part Two\">It&#8217;s Bluebird Time Part Two<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just when you think you can&#8217;t take anymore of this cold, windy, dull, winter &#8211; Lo and behold, a beautiful flash of blue shows up in your yard! Your senses perk up, a smile comes over your face and then you start to think&#8230;BLUEBIRDS! Bluebirds are Choosing Nesting Sites, NOW! Most people don&#8217;t realize that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluebirds","category-wild-bird-houses"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6398,"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397\/revisions\/6398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}