Eggs and a mother bird

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days...this isn't actually from Wednesday but this is when the news was from, so I figured I'd post it anyway :)

So today (Wednesday) my brother and parents went to go check the R Family box because there was a full nest before. Guess what? There was a full nest PLUS a mother bird incubating the eggs! We couldn't get a count of the eggs because the mother bird was sitting on them, so hopefully when we go tomorrow to check the rest of the boxes, we can see.

Here's a picture of the mother on her eggs! (that picture is from Thursday's check of the R Family box)

Actual News

Above picture is of a male bluebird (top) and female (below) sitting on a branch. While we were checking the boxes, the two birds hovered near by to make sure their eggs were not being harmed. Bluebirds are extremely forgiving of human contact with their babies and eggs.

Yes, I have an actual news update today, even though I did not go check boxes.

Bluebirds have been sighted at school, by me and my brother both. We wanted to hang two boxes there, but we don't really have large trees far enough apart from each other. So, my bro hung one box up today. Look for it...it's in the middle of the front of the school in a big pine tree. It's light blue and looks like a birdhouse ;) Hopefully we'll get some bluebirds in there soon!

More news! Yesterday (or maybe Saturday?) I told you about how the R Family box had a nest in it. So today my brother and mom went to go check it, and it turns out it IS a bluebird nest! It has TWO EGGS in it! Very Exciting! That brings our count up to: 5 baby birds, 23 total eggs, and only 1 dormant egg.

That's about all the bluebird info I have for today. We are checking boxes again on Thursday, before bro leaves for the weekend, so a detailed post will go up then.

Don't forget that if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or just want to know more about the bluebirds, feel free to leave a comment on the blog!

Thanks for being interested!

Pictures!

Seeing as this is a relatively new site, I haven't really gotten a chance to show you pictures of the bluebirds. So, in between checking the boxes, I'll put some pictures up here and give you some bluebirds facts!

So this picture is of a male bluebird perched on his box. In his mouth is a mealworm. We leave a few mealworms on the tops of the boxes for the birds, but usually the male bird eats them, or brings them back to the nest for the female who is incubating (as seen there). If feeding the birds mealworms, make sure to buy medium sized,

plain mealworms.

To the right is a typical bluebird nest. They usually lay between 4-6 light blue eggs, but 5 is the most common. Bluebirds are deep-cavity nesters, meaning they like to build nests in deep holes. When building their nests in boxes, the cavity is usually a deep circular shape.

Both parents take an active part in bringing up the babies. The male will go find food while the female incubates and bring it back to the nest for the mother. The parents are very protective of their young and the father usually perches near-by the nest while the mother is incubating in order to protect her from predators. Bluebirds are great parents to their little babies!

Babies part 2

When checking the boxes yesterday, my camera died before I could get pictures of the baby bluebirds in box number 5. So we went back to the cemetary today to see if I could get good pictures. Let me tell you, photographing tiny baby bluebirds is no easy task. That was the best I could do because they were squirming. Can't use flash because it will harm their health. Unfortunately, one of the eggs didn't hatch. So we have a total of 5 baby birds in one box. The box with the mother bird sitting on its eggs (picture from yesterday's blog) has 5 eggs in it, as do the other 2 active nests in the cemetary (2 and 4).

Exciting news! C1 has activity! There are some twigs and feathers in the bottom of the box, the start of a nest! :) hopefully there will be a full nest by next week.

We also went and checked the other boxes around the city. We took down one box from Fairmont, due to inactivity. We also took down one box from Mrs. S's house, also due to inactivity. These boxes will be relocated to school in Cypress.

More exciting news! While checking the other boxes, we found activity in a nest

at the R Family house. They had a full nest. Although it looks like a bluebird nest, we are not sure and will have to see if it develops into a sparrow nest or if there are eggs next week.

Fun bluebird fact of the day: For all of you non-bluebirder watchers...How can you tell the difference between a male and female bluebird? The most obvious way is by their colors. Male western bluebirds are a bright blue color. On the other hand, females are not as brightly colors, more of a brown-gray color with a tint of blue. Also, western bluebirds have a rusty red patch on their belly, while eastern bluebirds and mountain bluebirds do not. Can you tell what the bluebird above is?

Babies!

Above: a mother bluebird sits on her five eggs. Bluebirds lay all of their eggs, one each day at dawn, before incubating. A normal nest includes 5-7 eggs. They incubate their eggs for 15-22 days after laying the last egg.

We went to go check bluebird boxes at the cemetary today.

Run down of the cemetary boxes:

--C1: empty box, no activity, but hopefully after the babies fledge, that box will get some use

--C2: a nest with 5 eggs, last week, the nest had 1 egg

--C3: mother sitting on nest (picture above), number of eggs unknown

--C4: a nest with 5 eggs, last week it had 3

--C5: FIVE BABIES! Newly hatched, a little before checking. the cracked eggshells were still in the nest and the babies were opening their mouths for their mother to feed them (compared to the rest of their bodies, their mouths are HUGE!) sadly, my camera died before being able to snap some pictures of them, so we are going back tomorrow to check up on them. Hopefully the sixth egg will have hatched and we can get pictures of all six babies.

Hopefully next week we will have another nest or two with babies. It's amazing how such a tiny little egg grows into the beautiful bluebirds flying around Orange County.

Side note: Bluebirds were sighted by both my bro and I at our school in Cypress. There is a possibility of hanging one or two boxes at the school for the birds to nest.

Welcome!

Hello! I am doing a conservation project for Boy Scouts of America. I am trying to increase the bluebird population in Orange County by building boxes for the birds to nest, then monitoring them every week.

I am working with the Southern California Bluebird Club and get most of my information regarding bluebirds and procedures on handling the boxes from them.

Over the summer, I built ten boxes with my BoyScout troop, according to the specifications provided by the SCBC. We painted them a light blue color, because the bluebirds prefer this color, and numbered them so that they would be easier to track on the map.

I currently have a total of ten boxes. 5 are located at a cemetary, which provides open areas and plenty of food for the bluebirds, and the other 5 are scattered around a few different cities, sort of as an experiment to see if the bluebirds will live in more urban areas.

I have been monitoring boxes since October 2008. My sister is the historian and photographer of the team and we set up this blog to keep track of the bluebirds and help to educate others about bluebirds in general and how to start their own bluebird trail.

Enjoy following the bluebirds and if you have any questions, feel free to comment!