You’re very lucky if you have Bluebirds around your house. The male is especially pretty. He has beautiful blue wings. You can help them stay there. They nest in cavities & especially like a bird house. You can buy or make one. If you’d enjoy building one, there are patterns available on the Internet. Conservation Departments have them too. The best type has a roof that lifts off.

Bluebirds are very territorial, so if you want several houses you’ll need to keep them quite aways apart. Putting the nest box on a post is best. They won’t have so many predators bothering them or their eggs. If the box is put on a tree raccoons & snakes have easy access to the box. You can put an extension on their entrance hole & it keeps raccoons from being able to reach in the box w/ their front leg to grab a bird or their eggs. Also if you put grease on the pole it will keep snakes from crawling up.

It’s best to have their nest box ready in early spring. Putting cedar chips in the bottom of their box helps to control mites or other small bugs. Bluebirds biggest problem is usually the House Sparrow.

They like those type of nest boxes too & will fight over it. Check the box regularly. Sparrows build a ratty nest. They stuff it w/ grass & sometimes other things. If a male doesn’t have a mate yet, he will fill the box w/ grass, sit on the roof of the box & chirp for a female. When he finds a female & they lay eggs in the box, you will find brown speckled ones. The best way to deter Sparrows though is by pulling their nesting out. They can stuff grass in the house fast & it might take you several times of pulling their nesting out before they will finally decide to find another place & thus letting the Bluebirds have the box. They build a circular, tidy nest & their eggs are a pale blue color.

Sparrows can be mean too & if they want the box bad enough they’ve been known to even pile their nesting material on top of either Bluebird eggs or even their babies, so constant maintenance of the box is important.
All of this might sound like a lot of trouble, but it can be very rewarding. After the Bluebirds are established, you won’t need to help them so much.

Bluebirds are not only beautiful but fun to watch. They eat mainly bugs & their technique is to sit on a branch or post until they see a bug, then fly down & get it. Even though you know Bluebirds are nesting in the box, it is still good to regularly check it. Always knock on the box first, then lift the lid. It will scare the female @ first & she will fly out, but after awhile she will realize you’re not going to harm her & usually continue to stay on her nest. Sometimes you might find a dead baby & you’ll need to remove it. When all have left the nest, clean it, & you usually will find the same Bluebirds using the box again for their 2nd nesting of the year. If you watch them a lot you can see the parents feeding their new babies plus when they’re fledglings. They have a speckled chest. Their parents will also be laying eggs again, so they’re very busy w/ the female sitting on her eggs & both male & female still helping their 1st babies to eat. These birds stay w/ each a long time. You might even see the 1st hatchlings helping to feed the newest babies.

They’re also very dedicated birds. One time a female was found dead in the nest box apparently from a raccoon trying to get her during the night, but failed. Her babies under her were still alive. The male continued to raise all of the babies by himself.

Put a birdbath up not far from their nest box. Many times you’ll see several @ one time using it. Having their birdbath near one of your windows is fun too.

They might continue to stay when the weather gets cold. If you keep their nest box clean they will use it to stay warm. Serval of them might be inside @ the same time @ night. W/ plenty of food & water they’ll stay a long time. During the winter they’ll find favorite areas where they can consume fruits of red cedar, dogwood, hackberry, sumac, wild grape, poison ivy and other plants. Bluebirds mate for life, so you might have the same ones using your nest box for quite awhile.