![]() ![]() If you haven’t you can can see it in last weeks blog titled Get Ready For Bluebirds and for more videos visit our you tube channel. The green roof nesting boxes were designed Richard Gies for Longwood Gardens.Maybe you saw our video we posted last week of the three handsome male Bluebirds eating mealworms on our loading dock (it's also re-posted below). The temperature inside these nesting boxes will be monitored in an effort to ensure the safety of the fledglings (baby birds). The purpose of the “green roof” is to help keep the interior of the boxes cool during the hot summer months. The roofs on these nesting boxes have been planted with a variety of stonecrop (sedum) plants. ![]() Green roof nesting boxes waiting to be installed at the Smithsonian Gardens greenhouses in Suitland, Maryland earlier this winter. Tree swallows will select one box for nesting and defend the other against use by other swallows thereby allowing Bluebirds to claim it. In areas where Eastern Bluebirds coexist with Tree Swallows (like Maryland) it is recommended that two boxes be placed 15-20 feet apart. When is a pair of nesting boxes better than one? The lack of suitable nesting cavities caused by changing land use patterns, increasing urbanization, and competition from introduced European starlings and house sparrows has been responsible for the decline of Eastern Bluebirds populations in the past. ![]() Eastern Bluebird populations are on the rise thanks, in part, to efforts like this one. The nesting boxes were installed to benefit an existing population of Bluebirds as well as to encourage more bluebirds to nest on site. They are considered to be secondary cavity nesters in that they traditionally nest in holes made by woodpeckers and other birds. These beautiful birds breed in all eastern states from Maine to Florida. They eat insects and berries and require open grassy areas and meadows with low groundcover for feeding. Dave Menke, photographer.Ī native songbird, the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) is a member of the thrush family (Turdidae). Gies, lead volunteer of the Longwood Gardens Bluebird Project, Smithsonian Gardens established an Eastern Bluebird Habitat trail around the perimeter of the Greenhouse facility in Suitland MD. The installed nesting boxes on the Eastern Bluebird Habitat Trail. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |