re: Can/do birds move eggs from a nest?

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Same thing happened to my blue bird nest no signs of eggs anywhere. Had to be snake. Put a new house up new nest up 5 new eggs. I’m watching it close

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I've almost converted all my bluebird/tree swallow boxes to these free standing conduit and rebar mounts. I use a five gallon bucket and the bendable metal pipe strap to make a predator guard. It is too big around for even the longest chicken snake to climb, plus it has to go up the conduit, into the bucket, and make the turn on to the bucket just to try to climb it. The bucket also wobbles, so it is hard for a raccoon to stay on it.



The bush is now gone, so a snake can't go from it to the house. I use white buckets on most of them that are near the front of our property, they just look better. The house itself has proven successful after a year or so for the birds to get used to them. They're made out of PVC pipe with a red cedar bottom, and painted to look like a birch tree. You just squeeze them to get them off their mount to check the nest; easy off/easy on.

They're easy to make if you have a few tools and are handy.