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Project Noah Nature School
sialia sialis
Male bluebirds are bright blue with a red breast. Females are a slightly duller blue. They are small, sparrow-sized, birds. The eggs are a pale blue color.
Bluebirds live at edges of fields bordered by forests where there are lots of insects to eat. They nest in natural cavities (like holes in trees or fence posts) or in man-made bluebird houses.
This is the 3rd bluebird nesting of bluebirds in my backyard this summer. Bluebirds build tidy nest of pine needles and lay 1-6 eggs. They compete with house sparrows (invasive species) for nesting sites and were a threatened species in the last century until conservation programs, like providing nesting boxes and banning pesticides, helped increase their populations.
Spotted on Aug 1, 2015
Submitted on Aug 1, 2015
2 Comments
This picture was taken on Saturday, August 1st. Bluebirds will lay one egg per day until their "clutch" is complete. The mother bird does not sit on the eggs and incubate them until the last egg is laid. These eggs were laid July 17-19 and should hatch between August 7-9th. The first nest in our yard had five eggs but a raccoon ate them before they hatched. Our second nest had four eggs but a snake age them the day before they should have hatched. Snakes, raccoons and even other birds are common predators of bluebird eggs and young. We have a predator guard on this house, so hopefully this nest will hatch later this week. Another interesting fact is that the first nest of the season typically has the most eggs and each subsequent nesting has one fewer egg than the previous one.
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