If you want bluebirds in your backyard, don’t wait until spring to put out a box. Do it right now. If it’s an old birdhouse, make sure to clean it thoroughly. In the real estate business for birds, the “buyers” can be picky and a dirty birdhouse will send them elsewhere.
Also, make sure it’s a “bluebird house”. According to the National Audubon society, it’s critical that a bluebird house have the following characteristics:
– A good bluebird box should be well ventilated, watertight, and have drainage holes. It should be easy to open, monitor, and easy to clean.
– Solid, untreated wood is an ideal material, although exterior grade plywood can be used. The outside of boxes can be painted or stained if a light color is used.
– A bluebird box should not have a perch. Predatory house sparrows and house wrens are attracted to perches.
– Nest boxes for Eastern Bluebirds should have a round entrance hole measuring 1½” to 19/16″ in diameter, or a 1⅜” x 2¼” vertical oval hole, or a 1⅛” to 13/16″ horizontal slot entrance.
– Although bluebirds seem to prefer oval holes, smaller European starlings may be able to enter them, especially if they are not exactly 1⅜”.
In addition to setting up a good box – do it now, the bluebirds are already looking – it’s easier to attract bluebirds if you supply water and sunflower hearts.
The first year we had nesting bluebirds, they came to our heated birdbath almost every day. All other water sources were frozen at the time. While they were around, they found a birdhouse they liked and we have had bluebirds in our yard since then.
Another great way to attract bluebirds in the winter is with sunflower hearts. Insects and berries – staples for bluebirds – are tough to come by this time of year. But they will eat sunflower hearts – not the seeds, the hearts. Switch your birdseed to sunflower hearts. It’s a little pricier, but well worth it if you want to attract a pair of beautiful bluebirds to your back yard.