The Eastern Bluebird
Beautiful, cheerful, demure, raising two or more broods in the season, always a picture of “content in a cottage,” the Bluebird is the all-round ideal tenant for the simple bird house. He is, however, not a bird of the city, nor always a bird of the village garden. The suburbs, especially the more secluded spots therein, suit him much better. He tends, and that with ample reason, to shrink from the society of English Sparrows whose rough, aggressive manners and harsh notes introduce discord into his naturally calm and peaceful existence. By all means provide a house for this peerless tenant; also be prepared to lend him all possible assistance in policing his property until the eggs are laid. Once the precious eggs are deposited, trust the prospective parents to defend their treasure; for even the Bluebird is no exception to the general rule that a brooding bird will readily put an erstwhile successful bully to speedy and inglorious flight. See [Plate III] and [Table I] for housing the Bluebird.
To provide for a second nesting and possibly a third, the procedure should be the same as that described for the House Wren. See, therefore, directions given for that species.
Other Bluebirds
The Western Bluebird fills the same role on the ranges and ranches that is taken on the smaller farms of the east by his eastern namesake. Build and place the house for the one precisely as for the other. The western bird seems much more inclined than the eastern to adopt nesting sites in or close to human dwellings.
The Mountain Bluebird will use the same type of house; its location, of course, should correspond with the local haunts of the species.