Beau cleaned out the Bluebird houses a few weeks ago, reported back that they had been used last year - brought me a few shed Bluebird feathers for my collection.
Lucky you! Our houses are so far away from the house, along the north fence line, that I rarely get to see one.
It is amazing to watch the babies get up the courage to try. This is maybe my tenth or so time of having that opportunity. The parents go from feeding the nestlings voraciously to withholding it long enough to have hunger become an issue. That’s when the babies begin to peer out. They poke their heads out of the hole to observe the world beyond the nest box. Then they pop back in and exercise their wings some. A sibling will take a turn at the view. Eventually the first one decides that he (or she!) wants to really see what the fuss is all about. Then the parents change their call and chatter. They seem to coax them, and sometimes fly back and forth in front of the nest box, to show the kids what to do. It’s a really cool phenomenon.
I purposely placed the nest boxes (we have four) where I can have some view of the entrances from my sunroom window, which overlooks the backyard and woods (mostly woods). It makes it easy to monitor when the eggs hatch, and then another gauge to when it’s time to fly. Also, I can see if there’s any fighting from other birds like sparrows, which thankfully the bluebirds seem to have the upper hand in the last couple of years.
Last year was the first time we saw bluebirds at our feeder. They decided to come back this year.
We had a “nest box “ up for years without results , they found their way here ,