Baby bluebirds leave the nest when they are about 18 days old. (Courtesy)

If you haven’t noticed, eastern bluebirds are all a twitter, so it’s time to put up new or clean out and repair old nest boxes.

Before getting carried away, it’s important to know that bluebirds are country birds, not city dwellers. They prefer wide open spaces like pastures, golf courses, parks and cemeteries — not neighborhoods and cities packed with people, houses, buildings or trees.

You also can put away the bird seed, because bluebirds are insect and berry eaters, not seed eaters. This means you need to lay off the insecticides and let the birds do the work for you. The adults, as well as their young, all feed on insects during the growing season, supplemented by small fruits and berries during the winter.

Some of the best berried plants for attracting bluebirds are hollies, dogwoods, elderberry, Virginia creeper, pokeweed, snailseed, red cedar, wax myrtle, smilax, rattan vine, blueberries and huckleberries. If you don’t have these in your landscape, at least leave them on the edge of your property, a vacant lot or your place in the country if you have one.

Bluebirds are year-round residents in East Texas, which means they need food, shelter and water all year. They have the potential to raise up to three broods a year here. It’s amusing to watch the parents trying to wean their first batch while starting a new nest and family. The grown children make quite a racket trying to attract their parents’ attention with animated gestures saying, “Feed me! Feed me now!”

One reason East Texas has so many bluebirds is there are both open areas for foraging and nesting, and forested areas full of insects and berries. The margins of woods are great places for birds, as they can partake of the many insects in the open areas and the shelter, shade and fruit of the woodland areas.

If you have a choice when placing a bluebird nesting box, however, always choose the most open area you can find. Those boxes placed near wooded areas generally end up with equally cute Carolina chickadees, tufted titmice or flying squirrels.

Just make sure the nest boxes you put up can be opened so old nests can be removed. Bluebirds like clean houses. Entrance holes should be exactly 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Nest boxes are best erected before Valentine’s Day when love is in the air.

For more information about bluebirds in Texas, go to texasbluebirdsociety.org. The society will have its annual bluebird kickoff in Bryan on Feb. 24. 

 Greg Grant is the Smith County horticulturist for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. You can follow him on Facebook at Greg Grant Gardens, read his “Greg’s Ramblings” blog at arborgate.com or read “In Greg’s Garden” in each issue of Texas Gardener magazine (texasgardener.com).  For more information on local educational programming, go to smith.agrilife.org.