Tree Swallows displaces bluebirds...

 

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Tree Swallow

(Tachycineta bicolor)

 'The bane of the bluebird's being'

Tree Swallows are one of the earliest spring migrants in southern Ontario, and when they arrive in open areas where bird houses exist, they routinely go about displacing bluebirds, that have arrived even earlier and have started occupying nest boxes.   The bluebirds invariably retreat to bushy fringes.  Starlings and wrens also displace the bluebirds that the Tree Swallows have missed.   I have witnessed this in the Cold Creek Conservation Area of King Township for decades, and still the bluebirds instinctively return.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder