By Jill Kombrink – Naturalist for Youth & Family Programming
Have you ever thought a bird could be so fondly thought of that it has its own society formed for it? Well, in 1978 the North American Bluebird Society was formed to help protect the decreasing bluebird population and it is still a thriving organization today.
Although the Eastern bluebird is a common favorite of bird lovers today, in the late 1960s its population began to decline, possibly due to severe winter weather, increased use of pesticides and decreasing habitats. By the late 70s it was listed as a rare species but with the encouragement of the bluebird society to put up nest boxes and an increased awareness of harmful pesticides its population rebounded and the bluebird was removed from the rare list in 1996.
I’m sharing this information with you because although bluebirds stay in South Carolina year round, March is the month where we’ll start seeing these beauties return to their nesting boxes and begin their mating rituals. You may have a bluebird box in your back yard or have seen the one of our 16 nesting boxes around the neighborhood that we maintain and monitor. To encourage the return of these visitors it’s important to clean the nesting material out from the year before and then watch for new activity.
A bluebird nest typically consists of pine straw, grasses and plant parts and fills the nesting box. It can take anywhere from two days to two weeks for the nest to be complete and it’s not unusual for the males to do most of the building in the hope that his hard work will attract a mate. When the nest is complete you’ll see him strutting his stuff on top of the box and will aggressively protect his territory!
Bluebirds are thought to be fairly monogamous and may remain together for several mating seasons. I say ”fairly” monogamous because several DNA studies have been done on the eggs in bluebird nests and 30-60% of the nests contain eggs from more than one mate! Despite this slight indiscretion bluebirds are actually very attentive parents. The female will incubate the eggs for about two weeks while the male brings her food. Typically there will be three to six pale blue or greyish eggs and once they have hatched they feed the young berries, seeds and insects as often as every 15 minutes! The young will fledge within 20 days and although the parents will no longer provide food for them they will still stay in nearby trees with the parents looking out for them.
If you would like any more information on bluebirds or their nesting boxes contact Jill at the Outfitters and she’ll be happy to help!