New Bluebird Birdhouse

Resin-based bluebird birdhouse with an easy to clean bottom stopper. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

New Bluebird Birdhouse

It hasn’t exactly been high on my priority list but every year about this time of year I look for well built, easy to clean bluebird houses.

As Bluebird Gardens, we often see Eastern Bluebirds, especially during winter and early spring, visiting the garden in flocks. I often spot them eating Smooth Sumac seeds or drinking water out of the little water fall off my front porch.

A flock of Eastern Bluebirds one winter on my porch. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Eastern Bluebird numbers used to be on the decline but a concerted effort to put up houses for them has turned the tide on their numbers nationwide.

I like having birdhouses in my garden to keep unwanted bugs under control. Sixty percent of all birds depend on insects for food. Bluebirds eat grasshoppers, all types of flying insects, crickets, spiders, beetles and caterpillars during the spring and summer. When overwintering in Missouri, bluebirds form small flocks and feed primarily on berries and other available fruits. During warm winter days, they will eat any insects that become active.

I found a charming bluebird birdhouse several years ago at Goodwill made out of a gourd for $1. The painted gourd ones retail for $35 in the Midwest.

I spent an hour giving the gourd bluebird a new beak and fixing the damage to one side with paint. A clear coat and the bluebird gourd is now cradled in the middle of a wreath on my front porch. And yes, I do get visitors all summer checking out the birdhouse. And some nesting in the wreath, see the little nest in front of the bluebird gourd?

The salvaged bluebird gourd birdhouse keeping a wreath company. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Gourd birdhouses are charming but not very hardy. I take them down in fall, store them in my bee shed and put them back out in spring. Well, except for the bluebird one.

I also have bluebird houses around my garden, some which entertain bluebird pairs raising young a couple of times a year.

To get ready for this year’s bluebird-raising season, I found this new, resin-based bluebird birdhouse on an online shopping channel. They were featuring garden items and these were on clearance.

After showing how easy they can be cleaned, I ordered one knowing that the last purchase from China for a customer had not turned out well.

I was in luck. This little bluebird birdhouse came in undamaged and ready for use.

I do read instructions, even if I think i know how to use something. These instructions were pretty clear.

Now can instructions get any easier? (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The bluebird birdhouse is now spending the rest of February sitting on my bookcase by my front door.

In addition to being a favorite Bluebird Gardens tenant, Eastern Bluebirds are Missouri’s state bird.

The bluebird birdhouse will go outside the next sunny day since bluebirds can fledge three families a year and usually set up shop late winter.

The bluebird birdhouse has joined my other collection of garden friends on a book case. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I’m a little worried, though. That bluebird birdhouse looks awfully cute on my book case….

Charlotte