Bluebird Nestboxes

As part of our Wildlife Management Plan, we spent an afternoon a couple of weekends ago putting up 8 bluebird nestboxes. The nestboxes fulfill the "providing habitat" part of the part of the plan.

The Eastern Bluebird (Siala sialis) is a small cavity-nesting thrush. Their natural habitat has been disappearing as more of our land becomes urbanized and developed. The nestboxes simulate their natural cavity nests and will attract them. The small hole in the nestbox will keep out larger birds, but other small birds may decide to use the nestboxes too.

We mounted most of them on fence T-posts in meadows spread across our property. We tended to face the openings south and near a wooded area. This allows us easy access to monitor them during nesting season, typically in the spring and also gives the fledglings nearby trees. We placed a couple of them on existing fence lines which otherwise met the above criteria.

We tried to place them about 100 yards apart, but they're fairly uneven. If they're too close, the birds' territoriality may cause problems.

For our first attempt, we didn't provide predator guards below the nests. We'll try to monitor for predators and add guards if they become a problem. Possible predators include raccoons and snakes.

I also recorded the GPS coordinates of each nestbox and used Google Maps to display their location. This forms part of our record-keeping for the Wildlife Management Plan and was quite simple to do.

We'll probably need to put up another 8 boxes next year and possibly around 20 in total. They are all easily accessible from our driveway and a dirt road on the property and form what is called a bluebird trail.

We're members of the Texas Bluebird Society. You may learn more about these birds and the efforts to help them there.