On a Tennessee golf course, a bluebird box can look like a small thing: a simple wooden structure mounted on a post, tucked beside a fairway or near an out-of-play area. But for the Eastern Bluebird, that box can mean the difference between having a place to raise a family and having nowhere to nest.
The Eastern Bluebird is a year-round resident of Tennessee and one of the state's most recognizable songbirds. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency describes it as a bird of fields and open forests, where it perches on wires, posts and low branches while scanning the ground for insects. Its diet includes caterpillars, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and spiders.
Those characteristics make golf courses an unexpectedly good setting for bluebirds—and a powerful example of how recreation and wildlife conservation can coexist.
The Eastern Bluebird once faced a dramatic population decline. According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, its population fell in the early 20th century due to several factors, including competition for nesting sites from introduced species, loss of open space and natural nesting cavities, increased pesticide use and climatic events. Beginning in the 1970s, conservation efforts centered in part on nest boxes designed to provide suitable nesting sites and help keep larger European Starlings out.
Don Hazel, a member of the Cumberland County Bluebird Club and former president of the Tennessee Bluebird Society, remembers discovering the importance of those boxes firsthand. After Hazel's father retired, he built a couple of bluebird boxes. The response was immediate.
“We had bluebirds the first year. And we'd never seen any prior to that,” said Don Hazel.
Hazel soon learned that the birds weren't simply attracted to the boxes—they needed the nesting cavities the boxes provided.
“They need a place to nest. They need a hole to nest in,” said Hazel.
Golf courses might seem like highly managed landscapes, but they contain many of the characteristics Eastern Bluebirds prefer. The Audubon Field Guide describes bluebird habitat as open country with scattered trees, including fields, grasslands, forest clearings and other semi-open areas. Bluebirds also need access to insect prey.
Hazel says that makes golf courses an especially good match.
“Bluebirds like to catch their food on the ground, on mowed areas. Not in fields, not in the woods, but mowed areas, just like golf courses,” said Hazel.
The relationship can benefit the course as well. Bluebirds are insect eaters, and Hazel says they can consume hundreds of insects a day while feeding their young.
“Instead of using chemicals, we're using birds to, you know, stop insects from eating everything in the golf course,” said Hazel.
That doesn't mean golf courses are inherently wildlife sanctuaries, but the open, park-like spaces found on many courses can provide useful habitat when managed thoughtfully.
In Cumberland County, the conservation story began with the Bear Trace at Cumberland Mountain Golf Course. The course had already installed bluebird boxes and contacted Hazel because of his interest in birds and his nature column. In 2014, Hazel and a group of volunteers began monitoring the boxes.
Monitoring isn't simply a matter of putting up a box and walking away. Volunteers check the boxes regularly, looking for nesting activity and problems and maintaining the structures.
“To monitor, you go out once a week and make sure everything's okay. If there are problems, you take care of them and maintain the boxes,” said Hazel.
What started with eight people eventually expanded throughout the county.
“We now have over 400 boxes that we maintain and check every week. And now there's about 150 of us involved in bluebirds here in our county,” said Hazel.
The effort is part of a larger statewide network. Hazel said the Tennessee Bluebird Society has grown to include clubs in communities across Tennessee and is affiliated with the North American Bluebird Society.
The importance of those boxes becomes clearer when looking at the bluebird's history. Hazel recalls the scale of the decline: around 1900, an estimated 20 million Eastern Bluebirds lived east of the Mississippi River. By the 1960s, he says, estimates had fallen to about 2 million—a roughly 90 percent decline.
The shortage of nesting cavities was a major problem. Natural cavities in old trees and woodpecker-created holes were becoming harder to find, while introduced House Sparrows and European Starlings competed aggressively for available sites.
“By putting bluebird boxes up, they now have a place to nest, and the population is now back to the original 20 million,” said Hazel.
The broader conservation picture supports the importance of nest boxes. TWRA's Eastern Bluebird profile says conservation efforts to provide and monitor nest boxes helped the species recover in Tennessee. Audubon's bluebird guidance likewise notes that nest boxes have helped bluebirds recover from population declines.
Golf courses became an especially visible part of that effort.
“Golf courses are a big part of that because golf courses are perfect for bluebirds,” said Hazel.
Perhaps the most important thing about a bluebird box is that it doesn't necessarily belong to a bluebird. Eastern Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters, meaning they use existing holes rather than excavating their own. That puts them in the company of several other native Tennessee birds that also depend on cavities. Hazel specifically points to Tree Swallows and chickadees.
“The species that nest in holes only, bluebirds, tree swallows, chickadees, and a few others, if they don't have a hole to nest in, they don't nest,” said Hazel.
That distinction is important. A bluebird box isn't simply a tool for restoring one species. Properly designed and monitored boxes can provide scarce nesting opportunities for a collection of native cavity-nesting birds.
And in Tennessee, the Tree Swallow is an especially notable beneficiary. Audubon notes that the popularity of bluebird conservation has benefited Tree Swallows because they use nest cavities of the same size and frequently take advantage of bluebird houses.
“By providing a nesting box, it allows those birds to continue to find places to nest,” said Hazel.
Meanwhile, introduced House Sparrows and European Starlings can create problems for native cavity nesters. TWRA identifies competition from introduced species as one factor in the bluebird's historical decline, while Audubon recommends monitoring boxes to help manage unwanted occupants.
One of the unexpected strengths of putting bluebird boxes on golf courses is visibility. A backyard nest box might help a family of birds, but a box beside a golf fairway can introduce hundreds of people to the conservation effort.
“When they're on a golf course, everybody can enjoy them,” said Hazel.
Golfers, Hazel says, often become curious about what's happening inside the boxes.
“They always ask, ‘Hey, can I look in the box? What's going on? How many babies?’ They're very interested in it,” said Hazel.
That curiosity can spread beyond the golf course. Someone who sees a bluebird box during a round may decide to install one at home, expanding the network of potential nesting sites.
In that sense, the golf course becomes more than habitat. It becomes a classroom—and a highly visible demonstration of conservation.
You don't have to be an ornithologist to help Tennessee's bluebirds. The Tennessee Bluebird Society has local chapters across the state, with volunteers helping build and maintain nest boxes, monitor nesting activity and educate others about native cavity-nesting birds. If a local chapter covers your county, the best place to start is by connecting with that group. And if it isn't, the Tennessee Bluebird Society welcomes people interested in starting a new chapter or nest-box trail.
The story of Tennessee's Eastern Bluebirds is ultimately a story about the value of providing the right habitat at the right time. Bluebird boxes helped address a critical shortage of nesting cavities and played an important role in the species' recovery. Today, those same boxes continue to provide homes not only for Eastern Bluebirds, but for other native cavity-nesting birds, particularly Tree Swallows, along with chickadees and other species.
Golf courses can make particularly effective locations because they combine open feeding areas with scattered trees, roughs and other less intensively managed spaces. And when courses work with volunteers to install and monitor nest boxes, they can turn otherwise overlooked corners of the property into productive wildlife habitat.
“We think of it as benefiting the bluebirds, but it really benefits everybody,” said Hazel.
On a Tennessee fairway, that can mean a golfer gets to watch a bluebird drop from a fence post to the grass in pursuit of an insect, while somewhere nearby a pair of Tree Swallows tends a nest inside a wooden box.
It's a small scene, but it represents a much larger conservation success: a landscape designed for people can also make room for native wildlife and, with a little help, give species like the Eastern Bluebird a place to thrive.