Termites Ate My Birdhouse

I went out yesterday to clean out the bird boxes and see what they needed in the way of repairs.  Most boxes were in good shape and needed little more than a sweeping out to get them ready for this year.  This box was the exception.  Its need for repairs was obvious.

Fourteen young birds fledged from here last year; two broods of Bluebirds and one of Tree Swallows.  The final nest of the 2013 season was that of a Bluebird.
 

What I saw in the corner of the floor didn’t look promising for the survival of this box.  Termites have been at work here.

The coat of paint was about all that was holding the side of the box in place.  A little pull and that layer came away to reveal the remnants of a termite feast.

The top of the box wasn’t in any better shape.  The other side, back and front of the box were still sound, so the box is only half bad.

The box had been originally mounted to a wooden board that was then affixed to a steel fence post.  Both were enclosed inside a four inch diameter corrugated plastic pipe to discourage climbing predators from reaching the nest box.

Termites accessed the birdhouse by way of the board.  They avoid exposure and hide their travel route beneath an arched tunnel composed of mud and masticated wood fiber.  Part of the protective cover has fallen away to expose their travel route partially carved into the wood.

Being inside the plastic pipe protected many of the mud tunnels.  These would normally not survive the winter weather.

The termite colony is located in the soil where moisture and temperature are more stable.  They utilize the mud tunnels to access wood, their food source, not in direct contact with the soil.

Termites are in danger of desiccation if exposed to heat or dry air and are a prime prey item for a long list of insect eating predators.  They survive by remaining hidden.

The small, soft bodied termite doesn’t look threatening, but the combination of mandibles capable of chomping into wood and intestinal microorganisms that aid in wood digestion make these insects champions at producing compost from large chunks of wood.

Termites are social insects that can develop large colonies centered around an egg producing queen.  When I was younger, I went through an ant farm period where I maintained several ant colonies living between sheets of closely mounted clear plastic.  After finding a piece of firewood full of termites, I filled an empty ant farm with some soil and wood chunks and loaded in as many termites as I could get from that firewood.  There was no queen, but the hundreds of workers managed to go about their business as usual.  The termites were fascinating to watch and flourished for several months until my father noticed them.  I tried to explain that they were no threat to the house, but they were evicted along with several other creatures that he felt should not be living in a young boy’s bedroom.   

Bird Box Nest Progress

The Bluebirds and Tree Swallows have finally settled down and are busily raising families.  Earlier in the year there was constant squabbling over possession of nest boxes and establishment of territories.  Now the field resembles a friendly suburban neighborhood with bird parents coming and going from their work of gathering food for growing broods. One brood of Bluebirds has already fledged from this box, and a second attempt is underway.

The normal sequence is to alternate Tree Swallows and Bluebirds in the boxes.  That may be because the current occupant of the box drives away all others of the same species.  When the box becomes available, it is more likely that a different species is on hand and ready to take advantage of the opportunity.  I was surprised to find back-to-back Bluebirds this time.

Another Bluebird brood had just left a box a little further along the trail.  I went ahead and cleaned the old nest out to prepare for future nests.  A new pair will go ahead and build over an old nest.  Since there’s usually only a short span between fledging and beginning of a new nest, I don’t always get the old nest cleaned out in time and the nests begin to stack up.

This is a more rural abode that sits well off the trail towards the center of the field.  It has seen over 20 years of service and though it now sports some replacement parts, it’s heavily used every year.

It is currently housing a family of young Tree Swallows.

The next box down the line is also home to Tree Swallows.  Swallows are currently outproducing Bluebirds by a margin of 2:1.  I’ll probably have to put up a few new boxes this winter to accommodate the mob of birds that will arrive next spring.

This is the oldest box in the field.  It changed hands several times before a pair of Tree Swallows finally held on long enough to finish a nest and fill it with eggs. The young inside are very near to fledging.  To avoid the possibility of prematurely flushing the youngsters out of the nest, I didn’t open the box for a picture.

Warning:  If you dislike stale, cliché, used to death conclusions; discontinue reading this post now.

You’ve now reached the tail end of this story.

Bird Box Check

I’ve begun to check the bird boxes to make sure they’re in shape to satisfy any birds that are ready to begin nest construction.  Wet weather and strong west winds have left this box with a little lean to the east.  The birds won’t mind a slightly uneven floor.

The last 2011 tenants were a pair of Tree Swallows that managed to successfully fledge six youngsters.  All Tree Swallows line the nest with a few feathers, but this pair has set a Blue Jay Barrens record for the number of feathers in a single nest.

Many of the boxes are used as winter roosts by the Bluebirds.  Sometimes they choose a box containing an old nest, so I always leave a couple of boxes with nests through the winter.  Since there were no signs that this box was being used as a roost, I cleaned out the nest material and brushed out the dust with a homemade Indian Grass brush.

This box was cleaned out in the fall and has been used all winter by roosting Bluebirds.  I clean the droppings out every few weeks, so it’s easy to confirm that the box is still being used. 

Bluebirds consume a lot of fruit over the winter, so their droppings are full of seeds.  Seed coats were softened by the bird’s digestive juices, making the seeds ready to germinate.  This is part of the reason so many shrubs grow up around the boxes.  By germinating the seeds in pots, I’ve discovered that the birds feed heavily on Eastern Red Cedar, Wild Grapes, Poison Ivy, Japanese Honeysuckle, Autumn Olive, Multiflora Rose and Bush Honeysuckle.  I see a lot of those species represented in this mess.

Besides the familiar seeds, there are a few that I don’t recognize.  I think I’ll go ahead and pot these up and see what develops.  It may be a good idea to do this every year.  If there is a new invasive plant moving into the area, I bet the birds will find it before I do.  Germinating the seeds may act as an early warning system of invasion by a new exotic species. 

Cleaning Out A Bluebird House

I rarely go out with the sole purpose of checking all of the bird boxes. They all get checked several times during the year, but I usually just check them when I’m in the area. This box had a lot of use this year, so I decided to see if it needed to be cleaned out.

The last tenants were Tree Swallows and it looks like they left a bit of a mess behind.

Removing the front part of the nest revealed an unhatched egg. Unlike Bluebirds, Tree Swallows do not remove the nestling feces, so the nest is pretty much trashed by the time the young are fledged. Bluebirds tend to treat the box as though they owned it and Tree Swallows are more like transient tenants.

This box had a lot of debris caked on the bottom. What I really needed was a stiff bristled brush.

Fortunately I have a field full of the perfect material for making a broom. Here I’ve selected some choice Indian Grass stems and folded them in half.

A quick cut from a pair of pruners that always hang from my belt on the opposite hip from my camera and I’ve created a functional broom.

The heavy grass stalks are perfect for removing the old nest material.

The grass leaves work well to remove the dust.

The result is a fairly clean box. I usually go around in early November and perform any needed repairs to the boxes. I’ll have additional cleaning tools with me then to finish the job.