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Show Nesting Boxes May Mean Hope For The Threatened Bluebird them suitable nesting retreats!" wrote naturalist John burroughs. Ilis observation seems rven more rlevant today as ag19th-centu- gressive house sparrows and usurp bluebird starlings the decline. In city and The tuneful bluebird once again includes a song of hope in its repertoire. Warbling a cheerful melody hasnt been easy for Unfabled bearer of happiness. Once fluttering close to extinction. the birds are staging a comeback thanks to a series of nesting box trails in the United States and "1I0W RKAD1I.Y the bluebirds become our friends and neighbors when we offer nesting places, and man with his disdain for tree stumps countryside, dead trees with cavities that once provided bluebird nesting sites have liecn cut down and hauled away. old wooden posts where bluebirds once found cozy hollows have been replaced b metal posts. Unable to lind suitable places to raise their young, bluebirds face & Lex cie Azerocb disaster. and dead branches saws them down. Thus pressed, bluebirds lake quickly to boxes, such us this large one (right). Its extra depth protects against raccoons and other marauders. Where predators don't Conservationists and the bird lovers have fostered a modest comeback by building trails of nesting boxes for bluebirds. A trail may consist of any number of nesting boxes, usually placed a hundred yards or more apart. The generous spacing pre- The eastern bluebird -now so scarce that most people under 30 have never seen one surely is one of the loveliest and most appealing of North American birds." writes Dr. Lawrence Zeleny in the June National Its extinction Geographic. remains a real possibility, threaten, shallower boxes suffice (diagram below). In the past five years nearly 1,000 bluebirds were raised in S3 boxes by Dr. laiwrenre Zeleny, who reports on the embattled bluebird in the June National vents fighting among the highly territorial birds. but a determined rescue campaign has been mounted in the United States and Says Dr. Zeleny: SIXTH RKTIRKMKXT in as an agricultural biochemist. Dr. Zeleny has (k'voted all his efforts to the nationwide effort to save the ltxiti Iloxes may be constructed of almost any type of wood, and they should be mounted is to supply them abundantly ilh nesting boxes." w During the past forty years, the numbers of the eastern bluebird (Sialia i may have plummeted as much as 90 per cent. The mountain bluebird in the United trails nl Ihe Mississippi Canada boasts the longest bluebird Rocky Mountain region and the western bluebird have suffered less, but gradually they are succumbing to the same pressures. Manitoba and Saskatchewan. the string of nesting Imxes covers a distance of IN ' The persistent squatters have been known to return right times or more Dowel and deal help position removable lop, which is secured by 1 wood screw with washer Use boards man-mad- milder-mannere- bluebirds. d River. world's trail. about 2.000 miles. Itluebirds nest in every state except Hawaii, and in every Canadian province except Newfoundland. The birds have always been an asset to farmers and gardeners Most of the year their liet consists almost entirely g of such insect pests as and grasshoppers cutworms. rival birds, the starling and the house sparrow, have contributed to the catastrophe. These aggressive interlopers like to nest in the e same natural or enclosures required by the Space between top and sides allows ventilation States lie east Threading its way through Two giving up. Till most bluebird sial-is- evicted. 85 azure-and-russ- et hluebird. three to five feet off the ground for convenient monitoring. Fence posts make practical supports; greased metal poles help thwart predators. . An entrance hole I x inches wide will bar starlings but not sparrows, which must be The boxes of our Beltsvillei Maryland, bluebird trail have yielded hundreds of healthy fledglings, dramatic evidence that the most practical way to help these songsters Canada. (cographic. 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