Whenever I see Father Bluebird sitting on top of a nesting box flapping his wings and “singing” in a low raspy voice, I know that there is a Mother bluebird out there watching and listening. The prospective father will go in and examine the proposed home and return to his singing and wing flapping on top of the box until the female comes onto the scene.
Lady Bluebird may go into the box to look around, or she may go into another box first. It seems as though Father Bluebird tries to sell his lady on a particular building site, and if one doesn’t suit her, he carries his amorous display to other boxes. Eventually, the finicky lady decides which one suits her special needs or tastes, and a new family is about to begin. (My husband jokes over the female being so particular in choosing her house, that she gives the male a hard time over details that only women understand. If the plumbing is not in perfect order, or if her kitchen doesn’t suit her fancy, she will have no part of it). She evidently knows what her contribution to this proposed venture is worth, and can well afford to make such reasonable demands! This choosing process can go on for days before any actual building begins.
This spring, we began observing bluebirds in March, and by March 19, a pair had indicated that they would nest in a new blue box by our pear tree. The box is in the same place that an older popular box had been. I am always thrilled when birds choose that spot because it can be easily seen from our kitchen window and from the sliding glass doors that lead to the backyard. Without the aid of binoculars, we can watch and keep up with a series of events that was set in order at the creation. When God ordained that every living thing would produce after its own kind, the beautiful russet-breasted bluebird must have been there obediently taking its orders. That you and I today can enjoy the sound and sight of the eastern bluebird (as well as many other wondrous creatures) is a gift from God for which I am truly thankful.
By April 12, our nest had 5 little greenish-blue eggs in it, and we began watching for anything that might threaten the pair of birds in fulfilling their mission. By April 25, all of the babies had successfully hatched out, and the parents began their feverish work of feeding the hungry nestlings. As usual, I began digging around in my flower beds and in and around old rotting wood in search of big juicy grub worms. For some unknown reason, the “pickings” were slim this year, so I finally resorted to buying mealworms, which the birds love. I placed them in a shallow pan near the nest, and it was not long before the birds knew that when I “visited” their area they would find a good supply of food in the pan.
Bluebirds like a big open area in which to feed, and they prefer the grass to be short. They make use of low perches from which they can look for insects without the danger of being on the ground. 3 to 4-foot stakes driven into the ground make excellent perches, but of the three that I put up, our birds almost exclusively used the one which was placed about 8 feet in front of their nest.
On May 7th, the parents were hauling little white “diapers” out of the nest. According to the books, the parents begin hauling away white bags shortly after the babies are hatched, but we have not been able to observe this activity until a few days before the babies fly. A bag, which contains body waste, is collected immediately after a baby is fed, and then it is removed and deposited away from the nest… Even the birds, living in such humble abodes, are not exempt from housekeeping chores!
Our bluebird babies flew from the blue box on May 13 and 14. We do not know if they all survived, but we have hopes that they did. We heard the special call that parents make to their fledglings for several days, and then what we believe was a new pair visited the blue box, started a nest, and by May 21 when we left on an extended vacation there was 1 egg in the nest.
By the time we returned on June 30, the nest was empty, so we don’t know how many babies there were. We have boxes up at two of our rental houses, and one of them produced five babies even though the children had taken the scarcely-feathered birds out of the box and played with them! We wired the box shut and monitored it often. The little birds miraculously grew into fully feathered fledglings and flew to a new home as they were created to do, despite their early abuse.
Besides the possible 15 bluebirds launched this year, we had 5 black-capped chickadees get their start in one of our bluebird boxes. The parents dove at me each time I opened the box…but I got a great picture of the five little black caps with the white rings around them.
My space is gone, and you haven’t even heard about the Carolina wrens…However, they built on an old dirty shelf in a dark corner of the tool shed. Now, if they find our bluebird boxes in 1999… I’ll just have to write about our birds again next year.
