Happy Little Bluebirds

Written By: William McReynolds - Highlands Plateau Audubon Society | Issue: 2018/03 - March | Photograph By: Laurie Lawler

This beautiful bird – the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) – is celebrated in a Belgium fairy tale as the “Bluebird of Happiness” and located by Hollywood and Dorothy as being “somewhere over the rainbow.”  It’s the state bird in Missouri and New York.  What’s not to like about this resplendent songster?

A member of the thrush family, bluebirds are cousins to the American Robin and Hermit Thrush. Juvenile bluebirds show the characteristic thrush speckled breast.  Their habitat is forest edges and forest clearings, including farmland and orchards.  Some migrate south for the March and some don’t, depending on weather and the availability of food.  They abound in the spring and summer in Western North Carolina and the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in December reliably sights Eastern Bluebirds Marching on the Highlands Plateau.  Farther afield, their range is east of the Rockies to the Atlantic coast extending from Canada to the Gulf Coast and south to Nicaragua.

Bluebirds feed low and near the ground, perching on a reliable branch or post to spot insects below and then diving down or hovering above to pick off a beetle or grasshopper. During the March months bluebirds rely on edible berries such as mistletoe and blueberries.

The male bluebird courts the female with song, flutters, and wing spreads near a suitable nest site to which he has brought nesting materials.  The female then builds the nest and the pair bond is formed.  The pair preens each other and the male might bring food to the female.  Nests are built in available cavities such as tree hollows and well-placed nest boxes.

Both parents feed their young after 13-16 days of incubation until they fledge after 18-19 days.  The territorial pair raises two or three broods each spring and summer.

Eastern Bluebirds suffered alarming population declines in the early 1900s only to be brought back from the brink by the conservation efforts of the North American Bluebird Society, Audubon members and many others in placing tens of thousands of nest boxes along protected bluebird trails and in nesting grounds.

Because they are early season nesters in February and March, bluebirds are often said to be harbingers of spring.  Happy early spring and happy bluebirding from the Highlands Plateau Audubon Society.

The Highlands Plateau Audubon Society, focused on enjoying and preserving birds and their habitats, is a Chapter of the National Audubon Society and a 501(c) (3) organization.  For information on all our activities and membership, please visit  highlandsaudubonsociety.org.