Working with mother nature

A friend made a few bluebird houses this spring and put them around my property, in the sheep pasture and gave one to a neighbor. Wouldn't you know that it was the neighbor's birdhouse that successfully attracted a breeding pair of these gorgeous little birds. The neighbors built a shelf beneath theirs to thwart predators and then periodically fed their birds meal worms. That's the male in the picture above enjoying the easy life.

This is the real estate that sold. The bluebirds moved in, hatched 5 eggs and successfully fledged 3 of them. Nests in nature have a 50% failure rate, so that's a pretty good return on investment. These houses are easy to build, but it's the location and surroundings that makes them attractive or not. There's lots of good advice on the internet at websites like this one. What I can tell you from my experience is build a few and try different locations. The 2 in my yard attracted bluebirds that checked them out, but weren't satisfied, and moved on. Maybe the bedrooms were too small.