A Suburban Curbside
Bluebird Trail
Bluebirds, as well as other cavity nesting bird species, can be harmed or helped by humans.
Ken Godwin of Dunwoody has found a great way to contribute to the welfare of many of these native bird species whose habitat is dwindling.
How To Provide Homes for
Cavity Nesting Birds in Your Yard
Place one bluebird nest-box on a metal pole in the front yard near the street for the bluebirds, and place a second box in the backyard for wrens and other cavity nesting birds. This pairing of boxes will reduce much of the fierce competition for homes.
Bluebirds seem to like being near the street and distant from homes, they like the night-time auto traffic that frightens cats, snakes and racoons and they especially appreciate mowed sod all around the base of the pole.
Wax the pole with carnauba wax, and enhance even more the box/pole arrangement with a predator guard. The house wrens seem to prefer the more shrubby habitat typical of back yards. Place more boxes in the back yard if you detect eviction-style competition.
Remember that ALL of our native cavity nesting birds are protected by law — don't remove any of the birds you find nesting there, even if they aren't quite what you expected. Allow the titmice, chickadees, house wrens, and others to nest in your boxes and learn as much as you can about them.
Helpful Links
Surf the many articles and branching Web links at Cornell's The Birdhouse Network. There you can hear what two bluebird calls sound like and find nest box designs for owls and kestrels too.
Notes from Ken
A Suburban curb-side bluebird trail in Atlanta Front yard, curbside suburban bluebirding may be a better choice than "back yard" bluebirding.
I have a curb-side bluebird trail in metro Atlanta, GA 30338. The habitat is typical "Leave it to Beaver" 1970s suburbia that extends outward another ten to twenty miles from its situation just north of Twelve O'clock High on the I-285 loop.
I started the trail in a nursery habitat in 1995. The nursery habitat I chose was as "country" as could be found. I used the meadow-like area under a wide high-tension power line easement. The power line is a great wild-life corridor into Atlanta. Other examples of good nursery areas that I exploited are high-way clover leaves and the usual baseball fields and soccer fields and cemeteries.
If I had success attracting bluebirds to a core nursery area the previous year, I placed four or five boxes in the neighborhoods surrounding the active boxes and each season I expanded outward from the core nursery. To expand, I chose "secondary nursery" habitat as first choice. By secondary nursery habitat I mean, simply, the best of what is available. If a wide-open, mowed front yard with dogwoods and a little crab grass is good, three such front yards at a T-intersection is better, and four such yards at a 4-way stop is best.
I shunned overly-manicured yards (no crab grass) and yards with neighboring yards that display the little yard-service pesticide warning signs, and cul-de-sacs. Once the secondary nurseries became active, I filled in the blanks installing boxes between boxes until I had a density approaching 400 ft spacing. Due to asphalt (shingles and pavement) diluting the productive value of typical suburban acreage, I used a 400 ft separation rule. I asked permission to place the bluebird boxes on metal poles as close to the street as possible. Curbside trails are more conveniently monitored, and, consequently, monitoring is less intrusive to the privacy of the home-owners. Within a few years the trail was expanded into my neighborhood.
In North Atlanta the other three species seem not to care much whether the box is in the front yard or the back yard. Bluebirds evict the other species from boxes they consider "prime", which always seem to be the front-yard boxes ("Duh! ..the ones you monitor!", you laugh! In rebuttal, home owners always reply to my request for permission, Sure, you can put up a box, but I've had one in the back yard for years and I've never seen a bluebird.).
Competition is a positive indication of the health of the habitat. Most of my "aborted nest attempts" are caused by bluebirds evicting chickadees or brown-headed nuthatches, or house-wrens evicting bluebirds and all the rest. But in 2002 I saw evidence the bluebirds can display surprising aggression, re-taking boxes the wrens took from THEM. Competition and eviction rates are high, so I am encouraging my neighbors to put up boxes of their own (both front-yard AND back-yard) so all five species can flourish.
Ken Godwin — BluebirdGuy@bellsouth.net
Atlanta, GA 30338