Eastern Bluebird Juveniles

The bluebird fledglings are now 28 days old.  Since they are stronger and able to follow their parents around, I found them perched on limbs over the patio yesterday morning waiting to be fed.  Previous to this they've been too far away or perched too high to obtain images.

Besides hearing begging chirps that help me locate them, they are venturing to lower limbs.  The one in the above image landed on this log to be closer to the female parent as she visited the mealworm feeder.  She  took off the second Mom departed.

After they had been fed, the three youngsters lingered on the limbs near the patio and one dropped down to a lower limb giving me a better chance to see her and show you what bluebird juveniles do in their spare time.

I saw all three of the juveniles do this same thing, pick lichen off the branch, hold it in their beak for a few seconds, then spit it out.  Babies learning what is and is not food?  The consensus--it's not good to eat!  

And above, my contender for baby-of-the-year photo.  Easy to see why I get little else done!

This is the seventh post in a series on this bluebird family.  To see all of the posts visit the link, bluebird family.   

For articles leading up to this series, visit my Wild Birds Unlimited articles:  Smitten with Bluebirds and April Celebrations.  And to see last season's chickadee family, visit the Secretive Chickadee Family and A Happy Fledging Time of Year.  In Wishing Upon a Bluebird, an initial encounter between nest building phoebes and bluebirds is described at Vickie's Sketchbook

Upcoming:  Bluebirds Love Water, and wing-waving in bluebird communication.