Home › Volumes › Bird Homes › Nests in Holes in Trees, Stumps, or Logs
Bluebird
Adult male--Upper parts intense blue; under parts terra cotta, belly whitish.
Adult female--Grayish blue, sides and breast lighter. Length--7.01.
Immature male--Bird three months old, upper parts grayish blue, spotted with pale gray; wings and tail blue; upper part of breast terra cotta; the centre of each feather buffy white; lower part of breast and sides terra cotta; belly whitish.
Breeding Range--From the Gulf States northward. The nest is of grass, placed in a hole in a tree or in a bird-box. 3 to 6 pale blue, sometimes white, eggs are laid. Size--.84 x .62. See Fig. 1, Plate C.
When the song of the Bluebird is heard, we who love not the cold weather are glad, for we know that in a few weeks the frost will leave the ground and the pure white flower of the bloodroot will lift its leaf-encircled head from the damp, dead leaves of the year that has past. But that is not our only reason for gladness; we look on the bluebird as a friend, one that spends his summers near us, leaving only when the frosts of late November come to tell him that 'tis time to go south, as food is becoming scarce. He is my favourite bird; and while I am writing of him, a pet one, but three months old, is sitting on my paper, seeming to wonder what I am doing, and why I do not play with him. He nips my pencil, but I pay no attention to him; then he tries to creep up my sleeve, and still I pay no attention; so, disgusted, he flies off to search for ants or other small insects. After a time I raise my hand and call; back he comes like a flash, and, hovering more like a large moth than a bird, he perches on my fingers, singing at the same time a soft little song that is his method of speech. Having a bird that is so thoroughly companionable makes me regard all bluebirds with the greatest possible affection.
Near New York the breeding season begins early in April; two broods are reared during the season. The young remain in the nest until about fifteen days old. It is noticeable that their claws are exceedingly sharp; this is, in all probability, that they may be able to climb out of the hole in which their nest is placed.