 Russell, Kentucky I had never thought of this until taking this photograph, but I've had Bluebirds in my backyard for my entire life. When I was very young, my father read an article about the drastic decline of the Eastern Bluebird and then built himself a box. We were successful right from the start and after going on my own, I've always kept a box in my backyard. (Don't confuse this with the Blue jay, not even related). Bluebirds have made a good recovery, thanks to education and nest box efforts. They have 3 big enemies: English Sparrows, lack of nesting habitat, and pesticides (and I would rank the enemies in that order too). After the loss of big hollow trees and during the old fashion farming days, the birds would often nest down in the rotten hollowed out wooden fencepost of the field fences. Once metal fencepost came into use, their nesting habitat again disappeared and this is where man-made nesting boxes came to the rescue. Bluebirds have 2 clutches per year, a spring and summer nesting. When I was young, our summer nesting was never successful. One by one, the young would die off. My father called the extension agent, but no luck. Then one evening, we watched the adults catch bugs in the garden and carry them to the nest and the problem was obvious. The 2nd clutch would hatch at the same time that the garden green beans were hit by pests. The problem was pesticides. After quiting the use of pesticides, the 2nd clutch was always successful from that point on. I've seen some strange behavior out of bluebirds, at least behavior that's not exactly bird like. I had one nest where the young had hatched and during the hunt for bugs, the female was hit and killed in the road by a car. The male Bluebird took up the slack and fed and cared for the young, even though it seemed to work him to exhaustion. I've also observed the male feeding the female as she sat on the nest during cool weather, something that always seemed to not be what you would have expected. Here's a link to the Bluebird Society. Also, here's a link to a webcam where you can keep tabs on a nest. The location is Kiawah Island, where I sometimes post photographs from. Build yourself a nestbox. Comment (3) | Permalink |
4x6photo.com | Eastern Bluebird Nesting Box | 28 April, 2008
