Media advisory issued Febrary 20, 2002, effective immediately.
For media inquiries, contact Caroline Booth Lara, Communications Specialist, (580) 224-6379.
  email: cblara@noble.org

It's Nest Box Building Time for Songbird Watchers

ARDMORE, Okla. — For a growing number of birdwatchers, watching songbirds, as well as planning ahead to make sure there are plenty of them to see and hear year-round, is a growing interest.

"Several beautiful and interesting songbirds such as eastern bluebird, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse and Bewick's wren nest in cavities," said Noble Foundation wildlife specialist Mike Porter. "In nature, these cavities usually occur in snags (dead trees) and are created by woodpeckers. To encourage cavity-nesting songbirds to nest on your property, you should put nest boxes up now."

As dead and damaged older trees are removed by property owners, cavity-nesting birds have a more difficult time finding nesting areas. Porter said constructing and placing nest boxes increase nesting habitat for cavity-nesting birds. To provide the best chance for these popular songbirds to nest in a box placed on your property, make sure nest boxes are erected, or inspected, repaired and cleaned out if already in place, by March 1. However, Porter says boxes erected in March and April should receive use as well.

"In southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, nesting season for cavity-nesting songbirds generally starts in early March and ends in early August," said Porter.

These local songbirds prefer nesting in clean nest boxes, seldom using old nests. However, they occasionally may build a new nest over an old one. Porter suggests nest boxes be cleaned out at least once a year during winter. However, it is better to clean them immediately after baby birds fledge or the nest is abandoned.

"At the Noble Foundation research and demonstration farms (in Carter County), we monitor our nest boxes weekly and remove nests after abandonment," said Porter. He explains the four cavity-nesting songbird types listed earlier collectively average slightly more than two nesting attempts per nest box.

Porter stresses another vital consideration in building and placing nest boxes is the use of a predator guard.

"It is very important to provide predator guards on the posts below nest boxes to avoid feeding many of the birds to predators," said Porter. "Nest boxes can become lethal traps for eggs, nestlings and even adult birds without predator guards in place."

The most common nest box predator in southern Oklahoma is the black rat snake. Other predators include house cats, raccoons and fox squirrels. Also interfering with nesting is the preoccupation of the nest by ants, paper wasps or house sparrows, and parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds. Other factors can also negatively impact nesting, Porter says, including destruction of boxes by cattle in pastures, egg or nestling mortality by hyperthermia, and human vandalism.

Porter offers the following information gleaned from nest box studies:

• Separate boxes by at least 100 yards to minimize songbird territorial conflicts.
• Place boxes about four to five feet above the ground.
• Place boxes in the open, usually 10 to 30 feet from a tree or woody edge.
• Face entrance holes in a northeasterly direction.

Bald cypress is the preferred wood for nest box construction due to its durability, followed by eastern red cedar, then pine, explained Porter. Soft cedar should not be used, due to its tendency to crack, which causes boxes to come apart.

To learn more about predator guards or for plans from which to build nest boxes, contact Amy Faulkenberry at the Noble Foundation by calling (580) 223-5810.

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Photos:

Nestbox01 (207k jpeg)
A tufted titmouse on a nest box on a Noble Foundation property.
Photo/Courtesy the Noble Foundation