After church yesterday, while eating lunch we saw that a beautiful bird was going in and out of Caleb's birdhouse in the backyard. Then we see another bird, same type but a little less colorful, going in too…this time with straw and leaves…Making a nest!! So we proceeded to watch these birds all afternoon as they busied themselves. Unfortunately I don't have a zoom lens, so my pictures aren't great. But we could zoom in on the computer and me and Jacob did some research and discovered that our birds are Eastern Bluebirds. It took a while to figure out exactly which type of bird these were, but as soon as we put our picture next to these we were so excited – it's the exact same! See HERE for some pictures.
Then we read this about them:
"The red, white, and blue Eastern Bluebird is a familiar and welcomed tenant of birdhouses in suburban yards."
"Male dark blue with bright reddish chest. Female drab gray-blue with duller reddish chest."
"The male Eastern Bluebird does a "Nest Demonstration Display" at the nest cavity to attract the female. He brings nest material to the hole, goes in and out, and waves his wings while perched above it. That is pretty much his contribution to nest building; only the female Eastern Bluebird builds the nest and incubates the eggs."
That last paragraph cracked us up because we had been wondering why the male never actually contributed to the nest, he just popped in and out to observe. The female was doing all the work! Very funny – and very interesting to witness.
They were there all afternoon working. I'll be so excited if we have an entire bluebird family living in our backyard all spring!
And Caleb is, of course, very proud that his birdhouse is getting such high praise from actual birds.
(Female is on the fence with a piece of grass, Male is perched on the birdhouse)
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