Baby Bluebirds

by Charlotte R Pender
(Loudonvill, Ohio)

We have a pair of nesting bluebirds in our yard. I watched them build their nest in an old birdhouse, hatch the eggs, and enjoyed watching them feed the young.

Yesterday we watched in horror as a sparrow went into the nest and killed one of the babies. I ran out there to scare it away.

The sparrows were relentless trying to get into the house in spite of the parents dive bombing them.

We tried to intervene without causing a lot of stress on the parents and babies, the old birdhouse literally fell apart as we opened the top to look in.

The babies looked dead. We put the nest on the ground and we had to leave for a few hours. When we came back we could not find any remains of the babies anywhere.

I did notice that the parents were still hanging around. Then I sat and watched them more closely and saw the male giving the female food which she took to the ground into some high grass like she is feeding some one.

I watched this scenario for hours and she is defiantly feeding something in the high grass. I don't know if I should look there or leave her alone. Please advise.

We bought a pellet gun to get rid of the sparrows and took down all the houses they were nesting in, also dumped out their eggs. We want to keep the bluebirds here.