I am a little late in posting this, but work gets in the way of the fun stuff some times. Last year I posted a story about the bluebird houses and feeders my husband, Charlie, made and put up in our yard. Unfortunately we were only able to attract two male bluebirds and no females. The house wrens moved in and had a family in both boxes instead.
Mr. Bluebird
This year is a much different story. A couple of months ago a pair of bluebirds (yes, this time one was a boy and the other was a girl!) took up residence in the nest box in the backyard. A short time later Charlie took a peek inside the box and found some eggs and after the proper amount of brooding time it was obvious the babies had hatched. Mom and Dad bluebird started visiting the feeders to feed more than just themselves. Dad seemed to be the main provider as Mom was still brooding to keep the babies warm. Check out that mouthful of worms and the new and improved feeder boxes!
Hardest working bluebird Dad
After the proper amount of time the babies fledged from the nest box and it appeared they moved out of our yard for a while. Mom and Dad came to the feeders regularly to gather mouthfuls of mealworms and then would fly to the north of our property and come back for more. This went on for a little over a week. It soon became obvious that Mom and Dad had coaxed the babies back into our yard so they would be closer to the food source we have been so generously providing for them (and all the other birds in the yard).
Today was the first time we were clearly able to tell how many babies we had. We hadn’t checked in the nest box while they were growing so we weren’t sure how many of the eggs had actually hatched. Here is a picture of the whole family (and a guest) in a dead tree on the edge of our property. We have THREE babies and the best part is that Mom has been spending a lot of time in the nest box again so we most likely have another brood on the way. It may be difficult to tell by this picture, but the high resolution version clearly shows the three birds at the bottom are young bluebirds!
First Bluebird Family of 2010
I expect to have more to report on in about a month or so. This set of babies are still being fed mostly by the parents, but appear to be starting to figure out that they can do something about it themselves and most likely will stick around to help out with the next batch too.
Bird Brains & Dog Tales 