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Submitted By
Carolyn
Seattle, WA, USA
Description
The old bird house on our tiny balcony on the 3rd floor was chosen by a pair of Dark-eyed Juncos for nesting. These resourceful little birds have made some amazing shifts in behavior to adapt to urban development. Even watching them build the nest, we weren’t convinced they’d use it. But the other day, lo and behold… two little eggs!
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Dark-eyed Junco Nest – 3rd Floor Balcony Birdhouse
Wow! Juncos very rarely nest in bird houses! Amazing find!
That’s awesome! Cool find! My grandparents love the city of Seattle, WA!!!
What size hole
Hi George, Dark-eyed Juncos rarely nest in nest boxes. They normally build cup nests in bushes and shrubs near the ground, so there is no standard for hole size that would attract them, however judging by their size, they will likely fit in entrance holes 1 3/8″ to 1 1/2″ in diameter.
Two juncos have made a nest in a very large flower pot on my ground floor porch on saturna island bc. Four babies now 4 days old. The nest is right beside my living rm window. I watch both parents bring food for the babies.
How can i send a photo?
Hi Dawne, You can submit photos to our Participant Photo gallery here. Also, if you’re interested, we invite you to report this nest to NestWatch. Participants monitor bird nests and report the data here on NestWatch.org. To get started, create an account here (or sign in with your Cornell Lab username and password if you already have one), review our Code of Conduct, and take the short, easy quiz to become a certified nest monitor. Then, go to the Your Data homepage, Add a New Nest Site to report the exact location of your nest, and Start a New Nesting Attempt to begin entering data for this clutch. Enter as much data as you can for each nest visit, and attach photos if you wish. When you’re done, click Summarize to tell us the outcome of the nest. These valuable data that are submitted to the NestWatch database join hundreds of thousands of other nest records that are made available to researchers for scientific research.
The diameter of the hole is just about 1.75″. It isn’t perfectly round, though. I think I used a 1″ spade drill bit then enlarged the hole by sanding it with a small rotary tool (Dremel). So, maybe closer to 2″ at it’s widest (more accurate measurements will be taken once they’re done with it).
Did you actually see the Juncos?
If so, maybe there isn’t many available spots near your house for them to nest.
Hi Ava, yes we saw the Juncos. They ended up having two broods in the birdhouse. There are plenty of spots for Juncos in our area. They often nest on our building’s rooftop gardening area where there are plenty of tufts of grass. There is also a park across the street.
The only thing I could think of that may have contributed to their decision (if there was an external influence) is that the closures due to COVID caused the garbage cans in the park to be empty, and the crows & seagulls were becoming agressive over food sources. Maybe the Juncos wanted to try something with a little more protection. Not just from the box itself, but by nesting closer to human activity (they were 3 feet from our balcony door).