Welcome Back, Bluebirds!

by Em
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I went birdwatching with a friend on Saturday, and I was so happy to see that the Eastern Bluebirds are back! They were even checking out nesting boxes already.

A photo of an Eastern Bluebird sitting on a nesting box

According to experts at our local university, our plants and trees and flowers are running about 28 days ahead of schedule this spring after many weeks of mild weather in February and so far in March.

However winter isn’t done with us quite yet. We felt the glancing blow of a snowstorm on Friday, so when I went birding on Saturday morning there was fresh, bright-white snow on the ground, and the ponds and marsh had frozen over in the chilly overnight temperatures. But that didn’t stop this bluebird from getting ready for the breeding season.

A photo of an Eastern Bluebird checking out a nesting box

In our area bluebirds are short-distance migrants. In the fall they may only travel a state or two away to spend their winters unlike many songbirds that fly to faraway places like Central or South America.

Bluebirds prefer open meadows, so this is not a bird that will ever be attracted to my backyard. That’s why it’s fun to spot them in the wild.

A photo of an Eastern Bluebird sitting in a leafless tree

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website, “Eastern Bluebirds eat mostly insects, wild fruit and berries. Occasionally, Eastern Bluebirds have also been observed capturing and eating larger prey items such as shrews, salamanders, snakes, lizards and tree frogs.”

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