Stokes Select Tips for Attracting Bluebirds
Stokes Select Tips for Attracting Bluebirds by Don and Lillian Stokes
1. Bluebirds can be found throughout most of the country and are easy to attract with the right nest box
placed in an open habitat. There are three species of bluebirds in North America. The Eastern Bluebird
lives throughout the East. The Western and Mountain Bluebirds live throughout most of the West.
2. Choose a nest box that is made of wood (but not pressure treated wood), has no perch, and has a 1-1/2
inch diameter hole for Eastern and Western Bluebirds. For Mountain Bluebirds choose a nest box with a
1-9/16 inch dia. hole (Western Bluebirds will also use this box in areas where the two species overlap).
The box should have drainage holes in the bottom and ventilation holes at the top or the sides. The
diameter of the floor should be about 4 x 4 inches to 5 x 5 inches for Eastern Bluebirds and 5 x 5 to 5.5 x
5.5 inches for Mountain and Western Bluebirds. Make sure the box can be
readily opened from the front, side, or top, so you can clean it out and monitor
the nesting progress.
3. Place the box in open, mowed habitat at least 100 feet from brushy wooded
areas. Good areas are large lawns, open fields, farmland, pastureland, and parks,
but not in areas where pesticides are used. Bluebirds eat insects during nesting
and hunt by swooping down to the ground.
4. Mount the nest box about 5 feet high on a metal pole, facing any direction.
To keep predators from climbing the pole and reaching the bluebirds, place a
baffle on the pole. A "bluebird trail" consists of several boxes placed about 150
yards apart. Put boxes up by early March, before nesting starts.
5. Check your box at least once a week during spring and early summer. Record the number of eggs,
nestlings, etc. Opening the box will not hurt the birds. Touching the box and leaving your scent will not
or cause them to abandon the nest, as most birds do not have a well-developed sense of smell. Bluebirds
make neat nests of fine grasses or pine needles and have 4 to 6 blue, rarely white, eggs. The incubation
period is 12-14 days and nestlings fledge at 18-21 days. Do not open the box after the young are 12-14
days, it could cause them to fledge prematurely.
Female Bluebird perched
on Birdhouse
© Photo by Lillian Stokes
Stokes Select Bluebird
House mounted to Stokes
Select Bird Feeder Pole