Bluebird with mealworms

Most years Bluebirds start to nest during late January and February in many area of the United States.  The winter weather this year in much of the country has been too cold and food sources too short to all the females Bluebirds to get into body condition to reproduce. If there has ever been a year to help the Bluebirds with supplement feeding, this is it!  One of the favorite things that Bluebirds

Mealworms Value Tub

love to eat is mealworms. Dried mealworms are a great convenient way to feed them to your feathered friends. They can be purchased in small packages or in a value tub, which is a good buy.

Hiatt Jelly & Mealworm Stake Feeders are a good way to feed Bluebirds the worms. You can move them around your lawn or garden so you can view the birds. Should you get eaten out of house and home, try the Songbird Essentials Recycled Plastic Mealworm Feeder. This feeder keeps out unwanted birds while offering a safe exit for excited Bluebirds.

Meal Worm Feeder

Bluebirds live throughout the U.S. and typically Eastern Bluebirds are seen east of the Rockies. Western and Mountain Bluebirds are seen west from the Rocky Mountains. The Eastern Bluebird is the state bird of Missouri and lives there year round.  Bluebirds begin their courtships beginning in February in the areas of the United States where they live year round. So now is the time to get your Bluebird nesting boxes up and available.  Bluebird populations were declining from 1920 – 1970 due to a loss of nesting habitat and completion for nest sites from introduced exotic species, European Starlings and house Sparrows.

The Eastern Bluebird is shaped like a robin slightly smaller and they often travel in small flocks. The male is bright blue with a reddish throat and chest and white belly. The female has similar yet muted color pattern. Juveniles are spotted with blue highlights. Listen for their gentle whistles and chatters. They primarily feed on insects and small fruits like berries, especially in winter. Look for them in farmlands, parks, open country, roadsides, urban areas, with some trees and the edges of forests and woodlands.

Once a mated pair decides on a location, the female builds the nest in four or five days with minimal help from the male. The female incubates as the male does not have a brood patch. The brood patch is a patch of featherless skin on the belly that is used to warm the eggs. The male will occasionally “sleep over” in the nest box with the females. The key to attracting bluebirds to nest is having plenty of nesting locations along with food and water. If your yard is heavily wooded you may not be able to get Bluebirds to nest because they tend to prefer open areas mixed with trees.  Since they naturally use tree cavities, a tree trunk is an ideal mounting place for a Bluebird house. We also have pole systems at www.GardenAccentHeaven.com for mounting bird houses. Place the bird house four to eight feet high near open areas and preferable with the pole facing south or east for sun exposure.  Offer perching spots near the Bluebird house where they can scan the landscape for food items.

GardenAccentHeaven has several Bluebird houses, but the Songbird Essentials Ultimate Nest Box is the “ultimate” option because of the following features:

• _· Brass hinged doors on both sides for easy cleaning. One side has plexiglas to monitor the nest without the danger of chicks falling out, great for the kids.
• _· Predator protector of solid copper to keep squirrels and woodpeckers from enlarging the hole.
• _· Elevated mesh floor to protect nestling from Blowflies.
• _· Zinc chromate plated screws provide a sturdy, longer –lasting house then on built with nails.
• _· Made of natural cedar to last for years and resist insect damage.

The ideal floor size for the box is 4” X 4” with a 1 ½” hole. If you have problems with predators or woodpeckers trying to enlarge the hole size, attach a Songbird Essentials SE617Metal Bluebird Portal Protector around the hole. Many other house options are also available.

-          Copper Roof – looks good and lasts longer

-          Recycled Composite Plastic – longest lasting option.

-          Screen Top Model – Houses Sparrows do not like it.

The female lays four to five light blue eggs that hatch in 13-15 days. The male catches insects to feed the nestlings a high protein diet for their rapidly developing bones and muscles. The young will fledge in 15-20 days, so avoid the temptation to spot on the nest two weeks after hatching so the nestling don’t panic and fledge before they are ready. For two weeks after fledging the parents continue to feed the young while they learn to fend for themselves.  Bluebirds will often re-nest and attempt to raise a second brood. These family units often stick together until the following spring.

Nest boxes are easy to maintain because they really only need to be cleaned twice a year. Clean in October after the breeding season because birds may use the box as a winter roost to get out of the wind and weather. Clean again in January to get ready for nesting.

If another species is persistent in using the nest box, like a Tree Swallow, you can put up another Bluebird house right next to it. Swallows will not tolerate another swallow nesting nearby, but they will get along with Bluebirds establishing a neighboring nest. House Sparrows also like the Bluebird boxes. With the Songbird Essentials sparrow trap you can catch and relocate those pesky Sparrows.

Food and Water

The best way to attract and keep Bluebirds in the yard area is to offer food and water. Their preferred food item is high protein mealworms, and we have juicy ones that they absolutely love. If the live worms give you the heebie-jeebies, try the freeze-dried option. Bluebird Nuggets are another good option, which are chunks of suet and berries. Try planting berry bushes like American Bittersweet this spring to provide natural food for next winter.

Simple plates and trays will do for feeding, but non target species may rob the goodies before the Bluebirds get there. A more efficient approach to doling out your mealworm supply is a Bluebird Mealworm Feeder. These feeders have an entrance hole that birds must go thought to get the mealworms. Most birds are unwilling to enter enclosed spaces, but Bluebirds don’t mind so they end up being the primary mealworm beneficiaries. These feeders can be hung or pole mounted and also come in a very sturdy model made from recycled composite plastic. The Nova Mealworm Warmer keeps mealworms alive and wiggling, it plugs in like a Mealworm crock pot!  Try presenting the Mealworms in a variety of ways and locations to see what they like and to help the birds discover them.

Bluebirds often visit bird baths for drinking and bathing , especially heated units in the wintertime. Be sure to offer a perching spot near the bath where they can preen and dry off. Add a Water Wiggler, dripper or bubbler to the water to get their attention with the sound and movement of water. Moving water also means mosquitoes cannot breed!

Want to learn more? We have the Stokes Bluebird book, with in depth tips attracting Bluebirds, and a short Bluebird Book by Birdwatchers Digest. Also check out Birdman Mel’s video below.

Have you noticed Sparrows going into your Bluebird and Martin houses? If so they will drive out the

Nesting Material

Bluebirds and Martins from your nesting boxes. English Sparrows and Starlings will often attack and kill Bluebirds and Martins on a nest of eggs. Now is the time to trap and eliminate them. I recommend the use of the Songbird Essentials 2 compartment Sparrow Trap. Place it on Martin poles and other places like buildings where you want to eliminate Sparrows and Starlings. It works best if you bait the outside of the chambers with a small amount of Sparrow nesting material. You can also use popped popcorn. Keeping live Sparrows in the center compartment of the trap helps to attract more.

In most areas where the Eastern Bluebirds winter in the United States the male beginning in early to mid February takes the female around to potential nesting sites for the two of them to get cozy. First babies are often born the first or second week of March.  By the end of January is the best time to install Bluebird Houses if you are going to put them up. If you can’t do it until later – don’t despair as Eastern Bluebirds often raise 2-3 families per year depending on weather and food availability. Eastern Bluebirds also often use Bluebird Houses as a winter roost to get out of the wind and winter weather.

Bluebirds are found throughout most of the United States. The bluebird is very beneficial to us. Bluebirds eat large

Eastern Bluebird

quantities of insects, such as cutworms and grasshoppers which damage our crops and gardens. These types of bluebirds make their home in North America: The Eastern Bluebird, The Western Bluebird and the Mountain Bluebird. These beautiful birds were once very common in much of the United States. However, over the past century their numbers have diminished due to the loss of natural habitat, overuse of pesticides and predators.

· Bluebirds prefer to live in open areas such as parks, pastures and meadows. Bluebirds eat large quantities of insects. Insects make up 60% – 80% of a bluebirds diet. They like to perch in small trees or fence posts and swoop down to eat insects on the grassy ground. Bluebirds will not typically visit your seed feeders, but will eat berry or insect suet that you place in a suet feeder for them.

· Bluebirds nest in natural tree cavities and old woodpecker holes. When natural nesting sites are scarce, bluebirds will use nesting boxes. Bluebird nesting boxes should be mounted on a fence post or pole, low to the ground, but no higher then 4-5’ above the ground. Situate the nesting boxes along woodland edges facing open land. Keep your nesting boxes as far away from human habitation as possible.

· Providing nesting materials is a very important factor in attracting nesting bluebirds to your backyard. Collecting nesting materials can take 100’s of trips. Bluebirds like soft grasses and fragrant pine needles as nesting material. Provide these nesting materials in a specially designed container, an empty suet cage, or you can simply gather bunches of material and situate it in the bark of a tree.

· Bluebirds, like all insect eating birds drink lots of water daily. Offer plenty of water sources, such as bird baths, in your bardyard.

Plant scattered fruit and berry trees, mixed with open lawn and herbaceous flower beds to make an excellent Bluebird habitat. Bluebirds enjoy the berries and fruits from red cedar, Virginia creep. Holly, dogwood, sumas, blueberry, bayberry, hackberry and elderberry.

· Bluebirds will also eat chopped fruit, berries and chopped peanut kernels from a platform feeder.

· To learn more about bluebirds join the North American Bluebird Society.