How to attract bluebirds to your backyard

Many people want to know how to attract bluebirds to their yard.
Bluebirds are one of the most beautiful songbirds native to the United States.
Competition for nesting sites and food have hurt their populations in the past.
You can be a part of bringing them back by attracting them and giving them a safe haven in your backyard and benefit from the pleasures of having these beautiful birds at your home.

This guide will tell you how, so lets get to it:

1) Habitat.
If your yard has a good mix of open areas so the birds can hunt, high perches so they can spot insects as well as their enemies and a place for a nest box, you have a good chance to tempt a bluebird to stay in your yard.
Complete these next steps to make your yard a bluebird yard.

2) Shelter.
Unless you have woods nearby with lots of possiblities for nesting, it is usually a good idea to provide a bluebird specific birdhouse.
Bluebirds have specific requirements as to their personal preferences and their need to be protected from enemies.
You can either build your own house or buy one pre-made .
Searching Google for "Bluebird specific birdhouse plans" should yield building plans.
Always provide more than one birdhouse on your property because if you have only one, other birds will come and fight over it and your bluebirds will loose that fight (meaning a normal bird house, not bluebird specific).
If you have more than one, they most likely will co-exist peacefully.
Place them about 20 feet apart.
Mount the birdhouse on a pole, fence post, out building or tree.
Provide appropriate protection from marauding House Sparrows, Cats, Snakes and Squirrels.
Baffles or greased poles work well for most of these.

3) Food.
Providing the birds with something to eat when they arrive in the spring could be the single most important factor in attracting bluebirds to your place.
Following all of the other steps will convince them to stay there.
Some people buy mealworms and offer them to the bluebirds in a tray or dish, the birds will also eat suet as well as normal bird food.
Fortify it with bits of raisins or currants, some like it with peanut butter mixed in.
Plant crabapples - Profusion" a variety of Crabapple that holds on to it's small fruits all winter.
It is a very important food source for the returning birds in the spring.
They flock to it like moth to a light.

4) Water.
Provide a water feature of some kind in your yard.
A pond, half-barrel with a drip fountain, a birdbath, spill basin, gurgling brook, anything would be appreciated by your birds.


Things to take into consideration:

Clean your birdhouses out after baby birds have fledged

Keep a journal on the activities of you bluebirds and their success in raising their families.
Provide this important data to organizations that keep track of the bluebird population, like: The Project Feeder Watch, by Cornell University.

Join the North American Bluebird Society.

Keep house sparrows away from your yard.

Multiple houses will not keep house sparrows from killing your bluebirds.


This concludes my How-to guide on "how to attract bluebirds to your backyard" hope it was helpful and that you enjoyed it and do tell your friends about this site.