Eastern Bluebirds--A Day in Family Life

Parenting in the bird world is busy and hard work.  Yesterday, for twenty minutes, I checked the timing of parent feedings at my bluebird box and found the intervals to be only two to three minutes apart.  

The young are ten days old today.  I took the image below at nine days.  Though it's hard to make out much else because of the five nestlings' huddled positions, you can see that their wings have grown substantially and new wing feathers are protruding from the sheaths.

Compare to day six, below, just three days earlier.  

Now, their eyes remain open when I open the box and they have no problem distinguishing between the arrival of a parent and a nest check.  In fact, vigorous peeping begins when a parent lands on the nest guard, while I receive no open gapes.  The nestlings are sensitive to both familiar sound and vibration.  Additionally, the male bluebird often gives a sharp chirp or two when he lands, the female less frequently and with a softer tone.

There is other work to be done in addition to feeding.  Below, the male leaves the nest box with a fecal sac.

The elimination of a fecal sac does not always go smoothly.  Generally, either parent may exit the nest box swiftly and drop the sac in flight somewhere beyond the hunting perches. But on one occasion, I saw the male land on a nearby perch and drop a shredding fecal sac on the limb itself.  He stared at it for an instant, then leaving it behind, resumed his hunting and feeding.    

Occasionally, the male and the female will arrive at the nest box at the same time.  If the male is inside the nest box when the female arrives, she has been observed to wait patiently until he exits, scooting herself to one side of the nest guard to allow for his departure.    

Other times, departure takes a quieter pace.  Either parent may sit on the edge of the nest guard and look around before taking flight.  Below, the male has paused and spotted movement in the grass. 

A quick trip to the ground and back up to the nest box, and a spider becomes food for one of the nestlings.

Next:  Bluebirds love Water!

Links and resources:

This is the third post in a series on this bluebird family.  To see all of the posts visit the link, bluebird family.   In Wishing Upon a Bluebird, an initial encounter between nest building phoebes and bluebirds is described at Vickie's Sketchbook.  I will be sharing more about this relationship between neighbors soon.

For articles leading up to the story on this post, 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.