Ask a Naturalist: Bluebird boxes

Say, how about placing some blue bird boxes at various locations in the park?

The unfortunate truth is sometimes even when you build it, they don’t come. We witnessed this at Eisenhower Park, where there have been blue bird boxes for years but still no blue birds. With or without birds, the boxes require monitoring and cleaning on a regular basis. With 311 acres of park land to maintain, that is something that our staff does not have time to do. Finally, we also found in Eisenhower Park that the boxes attract predators (snakes, raccoons, etc), requiring the installation and maintenance of predator guards.

As much as we love birds, blue bird boxes just aren't suitable for Hardberger Park.