Spring Is Almost Here - Really!

Sooner or later, winter will let up – and bluebirds will nest.

In a winter like this one, it might seem spring will never come.

But it’s guaranteed to get here. And now is the perfect time to start “thinking spring” by making plans to connect with wildlife in your own backyard when temperatures warm.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission again is selling bluebird nesting boxes. The boxes sell for $10.60 (includes sales tax), and customers can select from assembled boxes or kits that can be assembled as a wood-working project.

“Bluebirds are early nesters, so now is the time to put up new nest boxes, as well as to clean and repair existing boxes,” said Dan Brauning, Game Commission Wildlife Diversity Division chief. “These bluebird boxes enable Pennsylvanians to help wildlife in a natural way.

“Also, building nesting boxes is a great project for individuals, families or civic organizations interested in connecting with wildlife. These box designs are proven to attract bluebirds and other native species, such as tree swallows and house wrens.”

Bluebirds live in open country, and are a beautiful songbird native to Pennsylvania. Bluebirds are cavity nesters and became less common due to a lack of suitable nest sites. Many nest sites have been lost through changing land-use practices, as well as to urban and suburban sprawl. But the introductions of house sparrows and starlings in 1851 and 1890 were the primary reasons for the bluebirds’ decline, as these non-native species took over native bluebird nesting cavities.

The bluebird boxes offered by the Game Commission include an opening that is the prescribed 1½  inches in diameter. This precludes starlings from being able to enter. However, house sparrows still are able to enter the boxes. If this occurs, the house sparrow nest should be removed immediately. They’re usually easy to identify; they fill up the whole nesting cavity with grasses and almost always include feathers and manmade materials in their composition. Native species such as tree swallows and house wrens should not be excluded from nest-boxes. Wrens construct nests with twigs; swallows build a nest with a distinct cup below the entrance hole.

Boxes should be placed on a free-standing pole 3 to 5 feet above the ground – facing south, if possible – and facing a nearby tree or fence where young birds can safely land on their initial flights from the box. To reduce predation and competition from other species, no perch should be placed on the box; bluebirds do not need one. Boxes placed in pairs, about 20 feet apart, may help reduce competition from swallows.

The Game Commission’s Howard Nursery has been manufacturing bluebird nest boxes and box kits for more than a quarter century. Each year, about 9,000 boxes are manufactured there and sold or provided to Pennsylvanians to help bluebirds. That annual influx of new nest boxes helps ensure Pennsylvania remains a “keystone state” in bluebird conservation.

The boxes are on sale at the Game Commission’s Harrisburg headquarters, the Howard Nursery, the Game Commission’s six region offices, and can be ordered by mail through an order form available online. Sales will continue while supplies last.

 Office hours are Monday to Friday from 7:45 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Game Commission’s headquarters is at 2001 Elmerton Ave., just off the Progress Avenue exit of Interstate 81 in Harrisburg.

The Howard Nursery is located at 197 Nursery Road, Howard, Pa.

To order by phone, call the Game Commission’s Harrisburg office at 1-888-888-3459. If ordering by phone, shipping and handling costs will apply depending on how many boxes are ordered.

The 2014 Wildlife Homes Order Form will soon be available at the Game Commission’s website. It will be found under the “General Store” tab, and in the “Howard Nursery” category.

For more information on bluebirds, visit the Game Commission’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us), hover over “Wildlife” in the menu bar at the top of the homepage, then select “Birding and Bird Conservation”, and then “Eastern Bluebird” in the Natural History section of the page. Also, information about additional wildlife nesting structures can be found by putting your cursor on “Self-Help” in the menu bar at the top of the homepage, then clicking on “Download Forms and Brochures” in the drop-down menu listing, and then clicking on “Wildlife Homes Order Form” in the “Agency Programs” section.