Nest box spacing - Top Recommendations for Various Habitat Locations
In our February post we covered our Top 7 Recommendations for Nest box Placement, now we have to emphasize the importance of nest box spacing.
Our Trail Master, Steven Shumborski, has plotted the GPS locations of our extensive network of Mountain Bluebird nest boxes and has studied the Trail Monitor data to reveal some interesting insights about nest box spacing in various habitat locations.
Available nest sites versus occupied nest sites data was used to determine a suitable spacing for the bluebird nest boxes in Southern Alberta. The occupied counts are over a 2 to 4 year period of data depending on location; the available nest boxes are the nest sites available each year.
Based on this review, the ideal minimum spacing of nest box for Mountain Bluebirds at various habitat locations:
Foothills (near Twin Butte) is 250m
Forest (near Cypress Hills) is 150m.
Grasslands (near Cypress Hills) is 250m, with a recommended spacing of 350 m or more.
The corresponding data for each area is below.
Foothills near Twin Butte
The minimum spacing between nest boxes in the foothills near Twin Butte is 250m.
Forest near Cypress Hills
The minimum spacing of nest boxes in the clearings of the Cypress Hills is 150m.
Comparing Foothills with Forest
Comparison of distance between nest sites at Twin Butte and Cypress Hills forested area.
Grasslands near Cypress Hills
The minimum spacing in the open grassland area of the Cypress Hills is 250m with a recommended spacing of 350 m or more.
Not sure about your nest box spacing?
If you have a nest box trail and you want to determine the bluebird nest spacing you can:
Get the GPS coordinates of each box
Review each season of nest monitoring data to identify which boxes had bluebird nests
Measure distances on Google Earth between the bluebird nests for each year of data
Plot the data and graphs in Excel
The bluebirds will tell you what spacing they are willing to use for nest sites through their actions.
Careful observation over time by Trail Monitors will help you determine if changes are required to nest box spacing. Extra boxes can be relocated to suitable habitat areas to increase the number of nesting sites the bluebirds will use.
Remember: putting the nest boxes close together supports tree swallows which are more social and fly together in flocks during the summer.
Let us know about your experience with nest box spacing in the comments below or by emailing us! Thanks for all you do to support and conserve Mountain Bluebird habitat.