The recent mild temperatures make it seem more like spring than mid-winter. One of my traditional spring cleaning chores is cleaning out the bird house. I remove last year’s nest and clean the inside with a diluted solution of bleach or ammonia.
That has been the classic cleaning recommendation for as long as I can remember. There is a concern that some of the nest parasites might survive the winter cold and could, then, prey on this year’s vulnerable nestlings. And there haven’t been many nights cold enough to kill all parasites.
However, in recent years some ornithologists have begun to question the need for the traditional spring cleaning. Those birds that use bird houses (less 10% of all species will) are known as cavity nesters. In the wild they might build their nest in an old woodpecker hole, a rotten tree trunk or any natural cavity.
Our man-made bird houses emulate these natural cavities. Who, the scientists now ask, cleans out those natural cavities every year. No one. And the birds have been using them for eons and seem to do just fine without spring cleaning. So maybe it isn’t necessary.
Me? I am still a traditionalist and will do the spring chore. Just to be sure the young will live to come back again next year.
birdsoup 
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