Nest boxes provide sheltered nesting sites for both passerines and paper wasps. Although neither wasps nor birds appear to evict the other once one is fully established, it is unclear which is the dominant competitor at the onset of the breeding season. Using wire mesh, we excluded birds but not golden paper wasps Polistesfuscatus from alternating boxes along a transect through edge habitat in North Carolina from 2006 – 2008. If wasps dominate Carolina chickadees Poecile carolinensis and eastern bluebirds Sialia sialis during the early spring (all have similar nest initiation dates), we would expect wasps to settle in both box types at equal frequencies. However, if birds dominate wasps, we would expect wasp nests to be concentrated in “bird‐proof” boxes. We found wasps in bird‐proof boxes significantly more often than in bird‐accessible boxes, indicating that secondary‐cavity nesting birds are able to exclude wasps from available nest sites. Additionally, we found that during the period of nest initiation, birds usurp wasps more often than vice versa.