During the breeding season, bluebirds defend territories on which they tend to remain and carry out all of their activities, including nesting, mating and feeding. Bluebird territories vary in size depending on the availability of food and nest holes or boxes and the amount of pressure from other bluebirds trying to nest in the same area.
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| A male eastern bluebird |
Individual males or mated pairs arrive on the breeding ground, usually near areas where they bred previously, and start to explore nest boxes and natural cavities. As they become more attached to the area, each male begins to do two things: sing frequently from exposed perches and fly from perch to perch around the limits of his territory. Both of these behaviors seem to help make his presence known to neighboring males.
Both male and female defend the territory, with the female confining most of her defense to the nest site and its immediate surroundings. During interactions, male bluebirds chase off other males off their territory but do not chase off females; and in turn, females chase other females but not males.
Courtship: The Start of Pairing
When bluebirds first arrive on their territory, it may be as either lone males or as pairs from the previous season. In many cases, males arrive a week or two before the females and start to defend territories in favorable habitats. Once the territory is established they may advertise their presence to passing females through song. This is given from high exposed perches, and the song is generally quite loud. Song may be given as often as 25 times per minute.
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| Good view from high perch |
He will also start a variety of other behaviors and displays that seem to call attention to the various nest holes or boxes on his territory. These same behaviors will be seen right away in the male if the pair arrive together on the territory.
Generally, when you see both birds, male and female go into a nest box together several times, that means that the two are paired and that they are likely to use that box as a nest site.Courtship and nest box selection can take several days. So if at first a little occurs on one day and then the birds fly off, do not worry. They may return again that day, the next day, or several days later.
Once two bluebirds are paired you will again begin to see different behaviors. One is termed mate-feeding, in which the male gets food and feeds it to the female. Sometimes she may crouch and wing-wave as she receives the food. Mate-feeding continues from the start of pairing on into the nestling phase.
I was out on the bluebird trail today and saw alot of activity around a number of nest boxes. I would encourage you to go and walk the trail, take pictures and record what you see. Write a comment on the blog telling me what you see. If you have photo's you would like to share, send them to jimbearden@bellsouth.net or as a text to 404-202-8755. With your permission, I would like to use some of the photo's and information in my weekly blog.
Next week we will start the record keeping of all the activity going on along the bluebird trail and any nest building activity. We have nest building already going on in nest box #1 and #2, today a couple was making a decision to move into #3. Before humans offered nest boxes, bluebirds did not have a lot of choice about the location of their nests; they had to use what was available.
Today, one of the main places that bluebirds nest is in nest boxes. These mimic the natural cavities and in some ways can be improvements upon them. They are usually better situated, have entrance holes that exclude certain other bird competitors, and they are generally drier and better ventilated.
Coming in the next weekly blog up date will be activity along the bluebird trail, now that it is spring. More about the nest building process. Send me some comments and photo's for our next bluebird trail blog!
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