Best Products for Attracting Bluebirds
Bluebirds can be challenging to attract in some cases. They have habitat requirements which don’t always fit most people’s living situations, and they eat different foods than most backyard birds. This being said, here at The Bird House we are getting more reports of Bluebirds visiting yards than ever before! Once in serious declines, Bluebirds like the Eastern Bluebird are rebounding and are a true conservation success story. Bluebirds are cavity nesters, so they will nest in birdhouses, and they will also come to feeders that provide the right food. Here are our suggestions on the best feeders and houses to attract Bluebirds to your yard.
Feeders are a great way to test the water to see if you have Bluebirds in your neighborhood. Bluebirds are best known for eating mealworms, both live and freeze-dried although they prefer mealworms live. Besides mealworms, Bluebirds are also known to visit feeders containing fruit, sunflower hearts, and even suet.
The Bluebird Flower Feeder is a simple way to feed Bluebirds. Just hang the feeder and fill with mealworms, bluebird nuggets, or the bugs nuts and fruit blend. Adding a weather guard can help keep the food in the feeder dry which is especially important when filling the feeder with mealworms.
Bluebird Feeders with cages or plexiglass sides are designed to help keep starlings and squirrels out. Removing the plexiglass sides at first can help to encourage birds to visit the feeder and get used to flying through its holes to get to the food inside. This recycled plastic Bluebird feeder is our favorite due to its easy to clean design and included roof which protects the food inside.
The Bugs, Nuts and Fruit seed log from Mr. Bird is a tried and true favorite of Bluebirds. This seed log is chock full of mealworms, sunflower hearts, fruit and peanuts. The Mr. Bird EZ feeder is a simple way of providing this to Bluebirds
Bluebird houses come in many styles. I’ve found that there is one that the Bluebirds gravitate to time and time again even when given multiple options. The sparrow-resistant house from Coveside Conservation has always been the first house that Bluebirds occupy in my experience when given the chance. This house has a fairly confined nesting cavity space and a rectangular entrance hole. This house is designed to keep sparrows out, but it seems to be a magnet for Bluebirds. For an extra step in keeping out sparrows, a newer style with an open top is also available. Bluebirds don’t mind having their nest exposed, but sparrows prefer to have their nesting site covered. This extra feature can help keep out sparrows while attracting bluebirds. The newest item in Coveside’s line is this sparrow-resistant house that combines the shallow nesting cavity, rectangular entrance hole and open top feature. This is the most sparrow-resistant house on the market
Mounting a Bluebird house is easy with the right hardware! The ERVA Bluebird Pole is the simplest way to go. The pole comes in two pieces and the house gets screwed into it from the back. Once the house is mounted on the pole it sinks into the ground and that is all! Screws are included.
