03/04/2026
Great advice!
I'm apartment hunting right now. Flying from box to box, tree cavity to tree cavity, inspecting every potential home in your neighborhood.
I stick my head inside, look around, test the entrance size. If it's dirty, I leave. If the hole is too big, I leave. If it faces the wrong direction, I leave. My babies' lives depend on getting this right.
I used to nest in old fence posts and dead trees. Most of those are gone now. I depend on nest boxes that humans put up. And most of them are wrong — too big, too dirty, facing the wrong way, with a perch that helps predators more than it helps me.
I almost disappeared in the 1960s. Nest box trails brought me back. The same species that removed my habitat built the boxes that saved me.
Here's what I need from yours.
🐦 The box that works:
- Entrance hole exactly one and a half inches — any bigger and starlings get in, and starlings don't share
- Facing east or southeast — morning sun warms the box early and the entrance stays sheltered from afternoon storms
- Height five to eight feet — higher attracts house sparrows that compete aggressively for the cavity
- Clean inside — last year's nest material holds parasites that can kill nestlings. A quick cleanout takes two minutes
- No perch below the hole — I don't need one, and predators use them to reach inside
If you have a box up, clean it out this week. If you don't have one, a basic bluebird box costs ten to fifteen dollars and takes twenty minutes to mount on a post or fence.
I might be checking it tomorrow morning 💙
