Sub-Letting a Nest Box

Last year and this, a lovely pair of Eastern Bluebirds used the white, birch-look box we have on our south fence. I posted quite a bit about them earlier this season – from their nest box selection behavior, building the nest, feeding their chicks, and we even caught a couple of their fledglings fly the coup on a trail cam. You can view those in earlier posts.

That Bluebird couple can now be seen in the upper limbs of the big Ponderosa Pines and hedge trees fifty to a hundred feet East of the yard. I hope they will come back and create another family before the season comes to an end.

Now, however, it appears they may have sub-let their box to a House Wren that has been busy building its own nest. Below are photos. You’ll see that this little bird stands atop the house and sings before he begins his job.

If you have ever watched a humorous home video show, you may have seen how challenging our highly intelligent but spatially challenged pet dogs are when it comes to negotiating a small space with a big stick. Dogs attempting to bring in a large limb through their Doggie Door, or taking a massive rawhide bone up the stairwell seem bewildered when they can’t get through the space. But, watching a tiny bird with a big twig twist and turn its head to maneuver that long item into the little hole is quite impressive. For that reason, I have posted many (but not all) of the photos in this sequence which actually only took a couple of minutes time.

Who knew it could take so much effort to put a little twig and a mouthful of grass into a small hole! I’m looking forward to watching the progress! We have another House Wren couple that is incubating their tiny brown eggs in the box at the far west end of our front yard!