Blue Birds

Recently I was lucky enough to see the sequence of events leading up to "getting married, mating and raising a family" of bluebirds. (Bluebirds mate for life).

I kept seeing what I thought were a couple of bluebirds taking turns flying away and coming back with a beak of straw and/or twigs and taking them into the birdhouse. Turns out, when going and coming stopped, a bird hopped out after making his last check of the nest he had built inside and PLACED A FEATHER on the outside stoop then flew away.

He brought a female back with him and he landed on a limb; she landed beside him. She looked down at the bluebird house, then flew down, went in and looked around. When she came out she did not even look in his direction or return to the limb but flew away in the opposite direction at top speed. (In hindsight, after I figured out WHAT it was that I was watching, it meant, "No thanks, not interested)."

He would fly away somewhere and come back with another female and the process would be repeated. I was watching when one female flew in, looked around, came out and PICKED UP THE FEATHER in her beak. This meant, "yes." She flew above the Mr. a few branches up and he joined her, pecked her on the head and slipped her a little surprise as he pecked the top of her head. It was then that I realized what scenario I had been witnessing. Until then, I thought it was just the same two birds building a nest.

Well, no time for a honeymoon, Mr. and Mrs. started finishing up the nest (guess she had to move some furniture around to suit her or something.) I don't remember how many days evolved but soon she was sitting on eggs and he was bringing her food to eat. I would sit in the yard and hear her call to him "come sit on the eggs while I get out for a bathroom break" and he would come and she would fly out of the box and he would then go inside.

Birds are just amazing. After the eggs hatched Mr. brought food for all. He usually sat on a branch very near the box as if "on guard". We even watched the little scared "wild feathered heads" of the baby birds peek out when Mr. and Mrs. were outside calling to them "come on and fly." We were lucky enough to see the first flight of one group of the baby bluebirds.