When Do You Clean Bird Houses For The Spring
To Clean Or Not To Clean Your Nest Box?
Photo © Steven Liffmann By Anita Tendler, Cornell Class of 2022
Prior to the breeding season, we make sure that our nest boxes are ready for their hereafter occupants. As the season progresses, we watch the naked hatchlings abound and develop into fully-feathered fledglings. Once the breeding season comes to a close, our nest boxes are abandoned and the leftover nesting fabric remains, which leaves the question, "What should exist done with old nests?"
Nest boxes vs natural cavities
Eastern Bluebirds In A Tree Cavity
In natural cavities, birds often must deal with old nesting textile that is already present.
Nest selection of natural cavities is quite different in comparing to our handy nest boxes. With a finite number of natural cavities to cull from, most birds tin can't afford to be too picky. Birds frequently cull to reuse successful natural cavities considering constructing a nest from scratch requires critical and limited fourth dimension and energy. Even so, the threat of ectoparasites (e.g. mites, blowfly larvae) from the erstwhile nesting material can also act equally a strong deterrent for cavity selection. With most birds not having the option to be choosy with their nest site selection, birds like the Eastern Bluebird simply build atop onetime nesting material if culling cavities aren't available.
Nest boxes provide crenel-nesting species the option to cull among several nest sites. Every bit well-constructed as some nest boxes might be, they are non immune to ectoparasites, the presence of which can deter some birds from occupying a nest box.
Does removing erstwhile nests mean fewer ectoparasites?
Some birds have adapted to cope with ectoparasites, so cleaning out your nest box may not have any impact on whether they occupy it. Male Firm Wrens, for instance, clean out the old nesting material between clutches, essentially doing the job for you.
House Wren Readying The Nest
Male person House Wrens remove old nesting material betwixt clutches.
To measure whether human intervention was helpful, researchers in Illinois removed old nesting material from some nest boxes that they knew successfully reared fledglings in the prior breeding flavour (Pacejka and Thompson 1996). With the other boxes left for the Firm Wrens to make clean, the researchers conducted a mite count to make up one's mind if in that location was a perceptible difference. They found that there was no real difference, so regardless of who, or what, cleans out your nest box, mites will however be there.
Not all birds clean house
Bluebirds do not remove onetime nesting material, rather they simply build over an existing nest. If you do not make clean out your nest box, it may become filled to the brim with old nesting fabric. This can potentially exit the new nest dangerously close to the archway hole, where predators can easily attain information technology.
Eastern Bluebird Eggs
Some bluebirds adopt a make clean nest box, just it depends on location.
To learn whether removing old nests influenced Eastern Bluebird nest box occupancy, a team of researchers in North Carolina erected 100 nest boxes. Afterward a successful first clutch, they cleaned out half and left the others as is. When the bluebirds were left to make a choice to re-nest in a box with a positive clan or to avert ectoparasites, a whopping 71% of them them chose to move to a clean nest box (Stanback and Dervan 2001).
So that means you should make clean your nest boxes, right? As compelling as these results are, information technology's important to remember that this is situation-dependent. Interestingly, opposite conclusions were reached in a Kentucky study that plant that Eastern Bluebirds in that state preferred nest boxes with old nests in them (Davis et al. 1994). There, parasitic wasps impale blowfly pupae over the wintertime; therefore, removing onetime nesting cloth may actually compromise this natural process.
To clean or not to clean? Information technology depends…
Cleaning out your nest box is your choice, as nest site selection varies among crenel-nesting species. When making your decision, feel free to weigh the pros and cons, taking into consideration private species preference and ectoparasite abundance. If y'all're hoping to attract House Wrens to your nest box, don't worry, they've got it covered. But, Eastern Bluebirds are a chip tricky. Depending on where y'all are, cleaning out your nest box may either invite or deter them.
A Mouse'southward House
Whether you decide to clean out your nest box at the end of the breeding season or not, don't forget that leftover nesting materials make the perfect home for small mammals. If mice occupy nest boxes, you should definitely make clean the boxes in the spring by removing nest material and washing with a soapy solution. Take precaution and wear gloves and a mask when removing rodent nests; they are far less fastidious than birds.
References:
- Davis, W. H., P. J. Kalisz, and R. J. Wells. 1994. Eastern bluebirds prefer boxes containing old nests (Preferencia en Sialia sialis por cajas que contienen nidos viejos). Periodical of Field Ornithology 65(2):250–253. Link
- Pacejka, A. J., and C. F. Thompson. 1996. Does removal of old nests from nestboxes by researchers affect mite populations in subsequent nests of house wrens? Journal of Field Ornithology 67(iv):558–64. Link
- Stanback, M. T., and A. A. Dervan. 2001. Within-flavour nest-site fidelity in eastern bluebirds: disentangling furnishings of nest success and parasite avoidance. The Auk 118(iii):743. DOI: 10.2307/4089937
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Source: https://nestwatch.org/connect/blog/to-clean-or-not-to-clean-your-nest-box/
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