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Tagged: observations
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AIH.
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June 29, 2025 at 6:50 am #28367
The TL;DR version is that while it may not look like it, the nesting bluebirds benefit from the presence of the aggressive nesting mockingbirds. Moreover, it may be the bluebirds have evolved to take advantage of the nesting mockingbirds and instinctively know how to manage their nest and young without triggering the mockingbirds. Just an idea.
June 29, 2025 at 7:39 pm #28368I was mostly just kidding. My brain hurts from thinking that deep. ;) I’m sure that is true!
Tammy
June 30, 2025 at 11:03 am #28369No news on the bluebirds. All is well.
The weather has been lousy so I have’t spent any time outside sitting and watching, so I don’t know what is going on with the mockingbirds. From the kitchen window I haven’t seen the mockingbirds harrassing loiterers. Usually I wouldn’t have to look for long before seeing one of the mocking birds streaking across the yard. Maybe their nesting has entered a new phase. The crepe myrtle is covered in Spanish moss such that I can’t see the female sitting on the nest or even the nest, so just don’t know. Reminder to self: Look up mockingbird nesting timeline.
Today was last day I open the nest box this cycle. Now looking forward to another possibly futile attempt to video at least one of the young fledging.
July 4, 2025 at 5:58 pm #28377I thought the bluebird young were about to fledge, and maybe they still will, but it is late in the day and I see they are still being fed.
The interesting new observation is I saw what I believe are young bluebirds hanging around with the adults and one of juvenile birds carried food to the nest box and fed one of the young at the box opening. These do not have adult plumage, but the ends of their wings are blue, and they are scraggly looking.
I did some searching and learned a new term: conspecific helping. So, this is indeed a thing. and these are apparently older fledglings that have remained in the parents’ territory.
I also learned that juveniles molt in late summer or early autumn and lose their spotted feathers for adult coloration. So, it fits that these older young would not look like adults this early.
I tried to keep watching but the afternoon heat and mosquitoes got to me. I planning on watching again early tomorrow morning to see what I can see, and hopefully video.
July 5, 2025 at 10:24 am #28378The young are fledging. I started watching the box from the porch shortly after sunrise. For a while nothing was happening, and then the adults started visiting the box and peering in. Sometime they would go in, and sometimes they carried away waste. The young would peer out off and on. At around 09:00 local an adult arrived at the box and peered in, and then perched on the peak of the box roof. One of the you peered out, then stuck its head out, and then flow out of the box, followed by the adult.
I waited a little while after to see another fledge, but I had been sitting long enough. I know the rest will fledge when they are ready.
Thinking about yesterday, seeing the juvenile feeding this brood, it occurred to me I was probably wrong when I thought earlier that these nesting pairs are different birds. I thought this because the new nests were started so soon after the earlier brood fledged. Maybe the second pair was different from the first, and this pair is the same as the first? Or maybe it has been the same pair all along? Anyway, I doubt it has been three separate pairs.
I wonder if there will be a fourth nest this season. I suppose there is enough time.
July 5, 2025 at 5:41 pm #28380My guess is it’s the same pair. They usually choose the same box. They’re very territorial and don’t allow other bluebirds in their area.
They can easily start a new nest about 14 days after the previous nest fledged. And sometimes unfortunately they start a nest even earlier and let their fledglings fend for themselves. That’s not a good outcome.
I think I did have 4 nests one year but 3 is more reasonable. But it definitely could happen. Keep us posted.Tammy
July 6, 2025 at 7:43 am #28388Cleaned out the nest box just now. There was one unhatched egg present. There were two after hatch day. Don’t know when the second egg disappeared or how.
Some other observations. Now that the bluebird babies have fledged I put out (dry) food into the feeders. The mockingbirds are noticeably more protective than in past days. I wonder if the are resource guarding (the bird food in the feeders) more than territory guarding or nest guarding.
A baby thrasher crossed the yard on the ground while I was working. I say it was a thrasher only because there was an adult brown thrasher watching over it. I wouldn’t have recognized the chick otherwise.
The adult bluebirds came to the feeder while I was working. I’m surprised still at how close they let me get to them, or how close they come to me.
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