Bluebirds are being welcomed all over town this spring! Whether it has anything to do with climate change, it seems that there are more than usual appearing in our backyards. In addition to having difficulty contending with killing winter temperatures, another factor in their dwindling numbers in our are during the past several decades is that house wrens, tree swallows, alien house sparrows and starlings have crowded the gentle Blues out of nearly all available nesting places.
Bluebirds make their nests from grass and stems in shrubs and trees. They have been known to construct them as high as 20 feet off the ground. The male will attract a female to a prospective site, and he may put a few grasses in it, but once the female accepts the site, she takes over to complete the nest and will be the sole incubator of the eggs. Females can lay 3-7 pale blue eggs that hatch in a little over two weeks. The chicks stay in the nest, being fed insects and spiders and berries, for almost three weeks before the fledglings depart, hopping around on the ground and learning to fly.
Most everyone is familiar with the bright blue, rusty breast and white abdomen of the male – one of our most beautifully colored songbirds. Not everyone realizes that the much “duller” bird usually accompanying him is the female. She does not have the bright blue color, but is mostly grayish/brown on her back. She does retain the rusty breast and white abdomen, however.
One of the factors leading to the Bluebird resurgence we are experiencing is that organizations and individual homeowners have taken up the cause of placing Bluebird nesting boxes in the birds’ preferred locations: open grassland with a background of trees. Specific instructions for building your own box can be found online, and most now come with instructions on how to include a protective barrier at the entrance.
As with most nesting songbirds, their eggs and chicks are highly sought after by cats, snakes, raccoons and predatory birds. If snakes are an issue in your area, plastic sheeting on the box post will impede their progress, and a slinky placed around the post will make it near impossible for the reptile and most other predators to get up to the nest.
If you want to attract Bluebirds to your yard, put out their favorite food: mealworms. Mealworms are not worms at all, but the larval form of the common darkling beetle. No need to buy fresh squirmy ones, bags of dried ones are available at pet shops and farm supply stores. Be sure to get a lot, because it turns out that all the songbirds love them!
Text by Friend of Holcomb Farm Shirley Murtha
Photo by Friend of Holcomb Farm Don Shaw, Jr.
