People's efforts have bluebirds rallying

Submited by:
Christine Boran, Woolwine, VA
Virginia Bluebird Society County Coordinator, Floyd and Patrick

“The birds richly repay you for the trouble you take in attracting them and looking out for their interests.”
- Joseph H. Dodson, Your Bird Friends and How to Win Them, 1928

The Eastern Bluebird was one of Virginia's most common songbirds 100 years ago, but their numbers sharply declined through the years in North America due to harsh winters, urban sprawl, lack of dead trees or snags, the introduction of the invasive non-native English House Sparrow and the European Starling from Europe, a decline in winter food (native berries), pesticides and herbicides, like glyphosate, which can kill bluebirds very quickly, and to predators. Thanks to human conservation efforts, such as establishing and monitoring manmade bluebird nestboxes using predator guards, their numbers have increased in the past decade.

Once a person sees a nesting cycle and fledging of our local bluebirds, it's easy to see how much fun and satisfying it is to help them succeed. Bluebirds prefer semi-open grassland habitat, such as mowed lawns or meadows, orchards, cemeteries, and roadsides with scattered trees and short ground cover. The male bluebird leaves mixed flocks in February and begins establishing his territory. In March he is courting his mate, shows her possible nest locations, and she makes the final decision where to build the nest. In mid to late March, the nest building begins and egg laying and incubation takes place. Virginia’s Eastern Bluebird has 2-3 broods per season.

It is not recommended to install a nestbox and to leave it unattended and unmonitored as too many things can go wrong for bluebirds. Nestboxes should be installed on poles with at least one guard to deter ground predators. Monitors clean out boxes between each nesting to make sure that non-native English house sparrows do not take over the boxes and to remove old nesting material. House sparrows and starlings are prime reasons that bluebirds numbers have decreased over the years because these non-native birds kill bluebirds and their young and rob them of places to nest in the wild. Monitoring allows us to control sparrow use of our nestboxes as well as gather valuable data about the activities of our native birds and detect problems early and provide a greater chance of survival for bluebirds and other protected cavity-nesting birds such as the chickadee, titmouse, nuthatch, tree swallow, and the House wrens will stuff nestboxes with sticks to the roof to create dummy nests so that other birds cannot use the nestbox. Monitors also look for signs of ants, blowflies, and wasps that deter and kill birds using the nestboxes and administers remedies to discourage them. The use of predator guards minimize the chance that snakes, squirrels, raccoons, large birds, mice, and feral cats that prey on the eggs and nestlings.

(Christine Boran is a volunteer for the non-profit Virginia Bluebird Society (VBS) as County Coordinator for Patrick and Floyd Counties. Christine established the Woolwine House Bluebird Trail commencing Spring 2008. She follows the VBS and Virginia Society of Ornithology’s (VSO) Principles of Birding Ethics while collecting accurate records of the cycle of nest building; egg laying, incubation, counts eggs, hatchings, and fledgings of the baby bluebirds. Christine is on the Speaker’s Bureau for the North American Bluebird Society (NABS) and conducts free educational presentations and workshops to local groups, trains beginners in proper nestbox selection and installation and how to monitor using VBS recommendations, and will coordinate and include that data for the VBS which is kept in the state's records and forwarded to NABS and the Transcontinental Bluebird Trail (USA and Canada). Christine is seeking Floyd County residents and property owners to participate in installing one nestbox or more and will train how to monitor the bluebirds and will coordinate the nesting statistics. Christine invites those already enjoying bluebirds now with an existing nestbox to call her to learn more about what they can do to help bluebirds succeed in their nestbox through the joys of monitoring the birds.)

The Virginia Bluebird Society (VBS) is an affiliate of the North American Bluebird Society (NABS) and is a Chapter of the Virginia Society of Ornithology (VSO). It was founded in 1999 to promote bluebirds and other native cavity nesters in Virginia. The Virginia Bluebird Society offers grants for new or refurbished bluebird trails on public lands, for Youth and Scouts groups, and other non-profit/charity organizations interested in installing and monitoring nestboxes. For more information and assistance, contact Christine through her website/blog: http://woolwinehousebluebirdtrail.com or call her at (276) 930-9963. Please also refer to the VBS website for more info: http://www.virginiabluebirds.org