How To Attract Bluebirds to Your Yard

(Music Playing) Hi, I am Dave Epstein, welcome to Growing Wisdom. And today, I am here with Carol Decker and we are at this wonderful wildlife. Thanks for you. Dave: Tell me of little bit about that first. Carol: Sure. This is Mass Audubon’s Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary and we are Mass Audubon’s largest sanctuary with about 23,000 acres. Dave: If folks want to attract blue birds specifically, you know a lot of people see Blue Jays and I think it is a blue bird but it is not. There is a big difference between a Blue Jay and a Blue Bird. So tell me about these great houses? Carol: Sure. We built this a number of years ago because we want an Eastern Blue Birds to nest right here at the sanctuary. The Eastern Blue Bird is a native bird. It is small, right blue, the male with an oranges breast and, they need a little extra help because they are not a very aggressive bird, a bird that also likes to nest in cavities and we called this cavities on if they are naturally dead trees, Blue Bird would nest in those but also the house barrel that was brought over by our ancestors. It is a European bird and it really out competes the Blue Bird for the nesting cavities. And so, someone came up with the idea that if you put up a box with a hole about two inches, because that allows the Blue Bird to go in but prevents larger birds from getting in. And it also attracts Tree Swallows which are our native bird. We may have an Eastern Blue Bird on one side and Trees Swallow on the others. So that is why we can have two boxes back to back. Dave: It is a great neighborhood. Carol: It is! Dave: Where you are going to have two different types of birds living together in harmony right? Carol: Absolutely. Dave: And, how high up to the bird houses have to be off the ground. Is there a certain height? Carol: Well generally around four to five feet. And we also put a guard here and not just to prevent snakes from crawling up. It keeps the raccoons from crawling up. It is just another extra guard because otherwise, they would be able to get up and get into the box. Generally face them in either a southern or easterly directions so the house is getting some sun. Dave: And I noticed that you have got it here in this wonderful field. Now, what if I do not have a big field like this in my house, can I still attract these guys? Carol: You could try. They really like the open areas. If you have very enclosed yards with lots of trees more than likely uniting you are going to get blue birds. But if you have an enclosed are with some space, definitely try to put out a house. Dave: Wow this has been really informative. Carol thank you very much. Carol: You are so welcome. Dave: Appreciated. Carol: Thanks for coming out Dave: Well, we thank you for watching out of this edition of GrowingWisdom.com. We hope that you can try to attract some Blue Birds in your yard.\ Come back every week for all of our hint, tips, and helps here at Growing Wisdom. (Music Playing)