Resources - Bird Information

The Eastern Bluebird

The Eastern Bluebird, once common in every rural backyard, was almost wiped to extinction, post World War II, by widespread use of DDT, in the early 1950's. A very strong comeback was eminent after DDT was banned, but changing farming practices became quite yet another devestating problem.

The disappearance of farm orchards, small fields and hedge rows, as well as the craze to clean up the dead snags in the woodlot, have all weighed heavily in there ability of finding available nesting places. All sites were inadvertently wiped from the rural terrain, which was once there comfortable habitat.

The Bluebird, blessed with a vivid blue back and soft russet breast, is a bright, keen eyed, friendly little member of the songbird family. It has a low fluted, twin syllable, intriguing song, which once heard, is hard to shake from memory.

This once common songster is unique, perhaps because it chooses to nest in cavities, but unlike the woodpeckers, they do not peck out there own holes. They are by nature, a "make do with what you got" creature, they simply recycle. They make use of existing cavities, lining them warmly with dried grass available from the previous season.

They are also known as ground feeders, frequenting the open grassland areas. There they enjoy a diet of insects and small fruits and berries. They are not aerial feeders, feeding on the wing as the swallows do. They catch and eat the grubs, bugs, and creepy crawlies, which they find near to and on the ground, adding small fruits and berries as the season progresses.

Baby Bluebirds, five to seven in each clutch, after fourteen days of incubation, hatch from tiny speckled blue eggs and grow to fledge speckle breasted, fully feathered and fully grown, in less than three weeks. Think about that for a moment! .....................It takes you and I about 20 years to do the same thing. For this reason they must be fed by their parents as much as, and more than their own weight in food each and every day. Insects, very high in protein, are a choice demand during the peak of fledgling feeding.

If we are to discourage the indiscriminate use of insecticides we must encourage more birds of all indigenous species to return once again, to sing, to nest and raise their young. Thus instilling a healthy sustainable balance to the environment that we all must learn to share, and enjoy, as nature intended.

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