Nest Site Fidelity

In addition to Messages that have appeared in the Bluebird Mailing Lists on this topic, the following are on the Audubon Society of Omaha website:  Between-Year Nest-Site Fidelity in Eastern Bluebirds in Ohio by Danny J. Ingold

Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2003 09:37:29 -0500
From: bellzerr bellzerr"at"comcast.net
Subject: Same pair year after year?
To: BLUEBIRD-L"at"cornell.edu

Is there any evidence of blues returning to a nestbox year after year? Or since the male (initially) selects the nestbox, that the same male will return? The reason I ask is that for the past two years, at about 4 nests per season, I've watched a pair nest, lay 5-6 eggs, and patiently icubate eggs that never hatch. In the previous 3 or 4 years the blues in my nestboxes raised healthy fledglings. Do I have a returning sterile male or pair, or might there be something changed in the environment that is creating a problem for them (gasp!)? I feed my blues mealworms every morning purchased from an internet supplier. Thanks for any ideas.

Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2003 10:14:14 -0600
To: bellzerr"at"comcast.net, BLUEBIRD-L"at"cornell.edu
From: Kate Arnold bbnestbox"at"1starnet.com
Subject: Re: Same pair year after year?

At 09:37 AM 2/9/03 -0500, bellzerr wrote:
Is there any evidence of blues returning to a nestbox year after year?
Or

...

Harry Kridler banded bluebirds every year and discovered that in areas like Texas where the bluebirds stay year-round and do not migrate the birds pair for life and the females use the same nestbox year after year or one very near-by. He had one female who raised young for six years in the nestbox she hatched out of, and six of her daughters were in the closest nestboxes on his trail.

It sounds like you have an infertile female.

Kate Arnold
Paris, TX
100 mi NE of Dallas
33.6853N 95.6293W

From: Paula [mailto:PaulaZ"at"columbus.rr.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 11:12 AM
Subject: Site Fidelity

I find birds and site fidelity to be very intriguing. I often wish I knew whether the EABL I have nesting in my boxes are the same ones I had the brood before or the year(s) before. They are not banded, however, and they all look pretty much the same to me so I cannot be certain whether or not they are the same ones. I do find obvious clues that this is occurring, however. I find that on my 21-box trail, there are 2 boxes that are consistently used by EABL - the same 2 year after year. Can any of you direct me to some studies that have been done on this subject? I'd like to learn more.

Another bird with site fidelity is apparently the red winged blackbird that perches in the pine tree across the road from our house on the island. His antics are very amusing to me, but not so amusing to my husband. Last summer, he would swoop and threaten pedestrians; hit joggers on the head; and thwap the heck out of the head of anyone on a motorcycle or bicycle. Very entertaining in the morning to sit by the window with a steaming cup of coffee and watch I assure you. Some people would have "discussions" with the bird, but he always had the last word. Well, I have to give all these people credit for their tolerance because the red winged blackbird male is back again in his full glory. A couple weeks ago, I watched with (maybe a little too much?) amusement as my husband pulled into the driveway on a motorcycle and got hit pretty hard in the head. Rick was not wearing his helmet, so it surprised him a bit. The look on his face was priceless. He also told me he got hit hard just walking in front of the house last week. So far, the blackbird has not even come out of the tree when I walk past, but we hope to get reacquainted this summer. Paula Z Powell (Central) Ohio South Bass Island (North) Ohio

From: XXX
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 12:05 PM
RE: Site Fidelity

I've been monitoring nestboxes for several years now. "My" birds aren't banded, so I can't confidently assert individuals' site fidelity, but there certainly is species site fidelity. Very rarely have the species using "my" various nestboxes changed over the years. Obviously, this could be due partly to subtle differences between the boxes in habitat. But in my back yard a couple of years ago, house wrens wanted and tried to take over a box that bluebirds had occupied for several seasons. Contrary to the reputations of both the bluebirds and the wrens, the bluebirds kicked out the wrens. Rebecca J. Columbia, MD

From: Bet Zimmerman [mailto:ezdz"at"charter.net]
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 9:52 AM
RE: Site Fidelity

See http://audubon-omaha.org/bbbox/nabs/di1.htm study by D. Ingold. I had read somewhere that some studies have shown that 30% of bluebirds return to previous nesting sites the following season. From this report, looks like somewhere between 28-50% of adults return, but only 1.2-8.8% of nestlings. Thanks to Jim McLoughlin (Audubon Society of Omaha) for posting this kind of info! Bet from CT

From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 8:56 AM
Re:site fidelity Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas

There are several bluebirders working right now banding bluebirds to further this research. It seems that in different parts of the country the populations of Eastern Bluebirds differ in their fidelity to nest sites and mates. Harry Krueger began putting up nestboxes in Northeast Texas in the early 1980's when he was in his late 60's or early 70's. He became intrigued by the lack of real research done with this bird and basically became obsessed with finding out everything there was to know about them. He went back to college to take courses that enabled him to become a Master Bird Bander and began spending about 7 hours a day watching, recording and banding these birds from January to about Oct. when he cut back to about 4 hours a day. In our part of East Texas the bluebirds do not migrate very far from their breeding grounds. His banding research showed that young females of the previous years hatch were more likely to be found nesting on his trail that young males. He felt that young males were driven off by their father but females were allowed to stay. He found larger numbers of males that had never been banded nesting than females that had no bands along his trails. Young tended to stay with their parents all winter and then disperse with the first sunny 80*F days in Jan. or Feb. Harry used a remote control live trap and trapped every male and female possible EACH time they nested in one of his nestboxes. He used 60 nestboxes and it was NOT unusual for him to have 58 or 59 pairs of bluebirds nesting at the SAME time. He checked these nestboxes EVERYDAY because he had to know when the first egg was laid and the last egg was laid and then figure when the eggs would hatch because he found that to trap the male bluebird you HAD to trap him the first three days after the young had hatched....You HAD to trap the male first. These birds did NOT like to be trapped and handled EVERY time they raised a family!!! The males after about three days would see the trap in the box and sit on the roof of the nestbox with food in their mouths and wait for their female to come feed the young. They KNEW that Harry would try to trap the male first allowing the female to enter many times while the male remained out of the nestbox. The male would give the food to the female to re-enter the boxes sometimes while Harry would sit for three hours at a time watching with his hand on the trigger.... Harry found during his years banding that bluebirds had a very strong fidelity to a nest site and to their mates in East Texas. He found that the female had a stronger fidelity to the nestbox than a male because very often the males would disappear but the female remained at the site with a new male. Harry had one female that nested in the same nestbox for six straight years...never allowing another pair to nest in the box during our long nesting season from Feb.>Sept. This was the same nestbox she was born in. During these years she had one mate for two years one for one year and the last one for three years. On this sixth year at one time in the summer four of her daughters were nesting in the four closest nestboxes along the road to the nestbox THEY were born in! This nestbox was in a person's yard and the man called Harry and told him one of the bluebirds had been killed by a cat!!!! Within 7 minutes Harry was in that yard with a box of mealworms and crickets because this six year old female had 6 young in the nestbox that were 12 days old. With only one parent this was going to be hard to keep all of them fed....The dead bluebird was the banded male....After three years or about 39 human years of marriage a cat had killed his research into this fascinating pair/marriage....As he gently held this dead male which was still warm to the touch a male bluebird called from the edge of the yard....The female called back.....A wing wave.....A return chortle.....The new unbanded male flew near the female and they both flew out to the field....Within 15 minutes of the time the old male was killed the female had found a new mate that IMMEDIATELY began helping her feed her 6 young. The male stayed with the female and raised the next brood of young. This was the most devastating thing Harry had ever witnessed......After 39 years of marriage he felt the female should and could have waited at LEAST one day before taking up with another male.... With about 65 pairs of bluebirds trapped a year each nesting he found one male that was a bigamist, he was feeding young in two nestboxes close together. He found two pairs that swapped mates after one nesting....The rest when one disappeared he felt they either totally left the territory or were killed because they never showed up again in his records....KK

From: Evelyn Cooper [mailto:emcooper"at"bayou.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 9:10 AM
RE: site fidelity

Well, Keith, after reading the fifth paragraph, who says a bird does not have a brain!!! Didn't take that male long to catch on! Also, I have to defend the poor mother for taking up with another man so quickly as she did have a lot of mouths to feed! Surely, Harry could understand that!! Even one day feeding six babies every few minutes would be tremendous for one bb. I read somewhere that 90% of bluebirds are faithful to their mates. If that is true, that is pretty good. Evelyn Cooper Delhi, LA

Bluebirdsters - I subscribe to the depth of the nest box as a critical control point for many predators. Feral cats, however, simply wait at the bottom of the box for a parent - or fledgling - to be at the entrance.

One other very important point is to randomly place your nest boxes instead of having them in the same spot year after year. This is a lot of trouble, I know, but, in nature, cavities tend to be "random." Predators, therefore, have to search them out.
This may reduce their chances of regularly finding a nest site that is in the same place season after season.... Anecdotal, for sure, but a probability nonetheless.

Good birding, Larry H. Joplin MO.

The concern I would have about random placement and moving boxes around is related to nest site fidelity. Many birds return to a nest site where they successfully raised a brood the previous year.

Bet from CT

Hi Bet,

Bluebirds exhibit site fidelity & even box fidelity, but their definition of "site" might be broader than you think.

KNC runs boxes here on site, at 3 golf courses in the Kalamazoo city area, at Fort Custer, & at a family of
5 golf courses near Fort Custer (4 in Kalamazoo County, 1 in Calhoun County to the east). An ex-employee who started his own consulting business has boxes on 3 or 4 golf courses in Grand Rapids.
There's also boxes up at businesses in the same areas.
Ben Pinkowski also has boxes at Fort Custer.

Since we band all the adult birds we catch, we can track where they go. (Unfortunately, bluebirds tend to be pretty jumpy. We catch Tree Swallows much more
frequently.) We've had adults go between nearby golf courses for the 2nd nest. They've also used the box right next door. Young birds tend to disperse farther, but even so we have a lot of young females nest within a mile of where they were hatched.

The trouble is that boxes are so distinctive.
Free-standing boxes on poles (the way all of mine are) are very obvious. Once a predator has associated the smell or look of a box with food, that's an important & therefore pretty permanent memory. Moving boxes from their previous location might confuse a predator for a little bit, but it's not a long-term fix, not unless you move the box out of the experienced predator's home range entirely.

& that might be tough. Suburban raccoons can find enough food in a small area, say 12 acres. Rural raccoons, without the benefit of garbage cans & fast food dumpsters, have home ranges anywhere from 120 to 740 acres. (Raccoon info from the "Mammals of the Great Lakes Region" by Allen Kurta.)

I'm more in favor of making it tougher for the predator to successfully raid the box. If it's not an easy meal, it won't be a top option. (I saw a raccoon just waiting behind a Snapping Turtle as it was laying eggs once. You can't get much easier than that.) Plus, moving my 115 boxes every year would be very expensive in both time & money.

However, my main predator is the raccoon. I've no idea (& there's not much research yet) about home range size, etc of snakes. Moving boxes may present a greater difficulty to them.

Torrey Wenger
Kalamazoo Nature Center
Kalamazoo, MI

I was reading an account on the web of a bird bander who banded 18 female bluebirds at his nest sites. He said that on the second nests, none of the original females were present...all were different females. From this he concluded that female bluebirds fly some distance from where they first nested, and that the second nests are made by other females that originally nested somewhere else. Any thoughts on this? thanks!

--rudy
in maryland

Here's the article and comment. It's under ^Courtship^, and the bander was T.E. Musselman (1935). It does raise questions, for sure. Would be interesting to see how other bander's data compares.

http://birdsbybent.com/ch21-30/bluebird.html

--rudy

A quiet, rainy night here in Maryland, and I have just gone back into the old dusty bluebird archives, also known as ^The Best of Bluebird Mailing Lists.^ I was reading Keith's similar post from Feb. 2003 concerning Harry's banding research.

That post had a piece of information that I found really interesting. Keith stated:

"He [Harry] checked these nestboxes EVERYDAY because he had to know when the first egg was laid and the last egg was laid and then figure when the eggs would hatch because he found that to trap the male bluebird you HAD to trap him the first three days after the young had hatched....You HAD to trap the male first. These birds did NOT like to be trapped and handled EVERY time they raised a family!!! The males after about three days would see the trap in the box and sit on the roof of the nestbox with food in their mouths and wait for their female to come feed the young. They KNEW that Harry would try to trap the male first allowing the female to enter many times while the male remained out of the nestbox. The male would give the food to the female to re-enter the boxes sometimes while Harry would sit for three hours at a time watching with his hand on the trigger."

So that answers the question of how to trap a male when they are nesting...something another list member and I were discussing and wondering about today (offline). Keith's post also adds some additional insights into Harry and his work on the bluebird's behavior. The entire thread called ^Nest Site Fidelity^ is worth a re-read if you are an oldtimer here, or a look-see if you are new and interested in learning more about the bluebird's fascinating behavior.

http://www.bestofbbml.audubon-omaha.org/site_fidelity.htm

Have a great 4th!!

--rudy

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