BLUEBIRD BOX CONTROVERSY RUFFLES FEATHERS

Seems there's nothing an outdoor writer can do nowadays to avoid stirring up controversy.

What I thought was a helpful but benign story on bluebirds in Sunday's Outdoors & Travel section has fanned smoldering unrest about - of all things - the proper proportions for bluebird nest boxes.

"You got it wrong again, Landers," one caller growled.

Being wrong is understandable when dealing with birds, a subject the seems to ruffle feathers no matter how it's approached.

The plans published Sunday described a nest box with a 4-inch by 4-inch floor. But a contingent of bluebird experts say better results can be achieved in this region by building a roomier box with a 5-inch by 5-inch floor.

"The smaller box is fine for western bluebirds, but in you're area, you can have either western or mountain bluebirds," said Sadie Dorber, former vice president of the North American Bluebird Society. "Mountain bluebirds are a little bigger and can have larger clutches - up to eight birds. The chicks need more room, or they get overheated."

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Department's latest pamphlet with dimensions for bluebird boxes does, indeed, recommend a 5-by-5 floor.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department has a nifty plan which allows you to build the nest box out of one 1-by-6 board that's 54 inches long. It calls for a 4-inch wide floor.

In fact, the dimensions of Idaho's box are different in every piece than those recommended by the the Bluebird Society or Washington's wildlife agency.

Who should we believe:

Washington, where the official bird is the willow goldfinch, a subspecies that isn't even listed in the Peterson's guide to western birds?

Or Idaho, the state that puts bluebirds on its license plates?

"We haven't had any comments on the size of our boxes," said Wayne Melquist, Idaho's non-game wildlife manager in Boise. "But a slightly large box makes sense."

"If you've built boxes with the smaller floors, that's fine," said Spokane biologist Jerry Hickman, noting that enlarging the box size for a 5-inch floor might be a good choice for replacement boxes. "But I've seen lots of birds fledge from the smaller boxes."

How can these professionals sound so calm when bluebird aficionados are losing sleep over this issue?

I called a friend this week to ask him over for dinner and had to listen to his tirade on bluebird box dimensions before he'd accept the invitation.

Hickman shrugged it off and moved on to other hints, such as "starting" nest boxes each spring with a handful of wood shavings or wood chips.

"This is essential for kestrels or wood ducks," he said. "But I believe it helps bluebirds get started, too."

Incidentally, Hickman said people who live in area woods by the water have had excellent success attracting wood ducks to boxes. State wildlife agencies have dimensions for the boxes.

You can be sure I'll sniff out any controversies before I publish them.

"The main thing is to get more cavities out in the field," Hickman said. "They're going to be used."

Which brings me to another criticism I received this week.

"You forgot to mention that it does little good to put out bluebird boxes if you don't also declare war on English sparrows and starlings," a caller said.

Another man suggested scrounging for salvage wood to build the boxes, to save money for buying a good pellet rifle.

Hickman agrees these imported vermin are the bane of native bluebirds, but he recommends the bloodless solution of tending the boxes.

"If English sparrows or starlings try to use the nest, go in and pull out the material before they can lay eggs," he said.

Susan Weller, an Auduboner from Cataldo, called to say she hoped the story on bluebirds would encourage people to put out nest boxes immediately.

"I've been depressed after finding 20 violet-green swallows dead on the road where they were hit by a car while huddling on the asphalt for warmth," she said.

Weller has observed swallows and other small birds swarming into empty nest boxes in early spring to share warmth and survive cold spells.

"That's why it's important to have boxes cleaned out by this time of year," she said.

This week, she's seen up to 10 swallows piling into a single bluebird nest box, as well and into a neighbor's shed. "This is tough weather for a bird that spends its winters in warmer climates," she said, noting that she sighted her first swallows of the year on March 9.

Even the topic of cleaning out bird boxes has garnered some controversy.

One caller suggested that people who tend bird boxes should drop the old nest debris at the base of the box. Supposedly this will keep in the neighborhood the bacteria the nest box holds to fight parasites.

But every biologist and bird expert interviewed this week scoffed at that one.

"How's the bacteria going to get from the ground back to the nest box?" asked Weller.

"Dumping the old nest material by the box would only serve to attract predators," said Dorber.

"Hmm," said Melquist.

You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

Copyright 1996 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.