It’s Spring in the South!

That's right! It's Spring in the South, now it’s time to clean out your birdhouses! (If you waited until mid-March, play it safe!)

An eastern bluebird nesting box at Kemp Park in Marietta GA.

Well folks, it’s finally Spring here in the southern United States. How do we know? Here in Marietta there are a few reliable signs of Spring: Woodpeckers have started drumming their beaks against trees (and chimneys) to attract their mates. The Cherry trees have bloomed already and immediately afterward we had another hard freeze. We’ve also seen 2 instances already of white-breasted Nuthatches building nests in old Bluebird boxes. These birds are usually the first of our backyard birds we see nesting.

A White-breasted Nuthatch perched on a tulip poplar

When the Cherry Trees bloom, we hope that this will be a reminder for you to clean out your birdhouses. That's what we mean when we say "It's Spring in the South!" It's just our reminder for you to clean them out before the nuthatches start building new nests!

Certain birds like the Eastern Bluebird could have 3-4 broods per year and raise a lot of baby blues. However, other birds like the white-breasted nuthatch only breed one time each season. In either case, you should watch the nest box carefully. Once all the young fledglings have left the nest, it should be cleaned out carefully. Why is this important?

A bluebird nesting box which is in dire need of Spring Cleaning!

I’m certain that you have seen the birdhouse placed on top of a fence in the neighbor’s yard, or maybe in the community garden nearby. But more often than not, people buy these and hang them and never clean them again. These old nest boxes will have a nest in them and they probably won’t be re-used. The old nests could also contain a bad egg, or even an entire clutch of eggs if something scared off the parents or worse. In addition, old nest material could contain bacteria mites or parasites that could harm your future tenants.

A bluebird Nesting Box with a partially completed nest from the prior breeding season.

Late Winter or Early Spring is definitely the best time to clean out the birdhouses in case you didn’t get to them at the end of Summer last year. But it is important to clean them out after each brood also. This way you could potentially have even more species of birds raise their young in your little birdie condo! It is very exciting!