Eastern Bluebird (MD2)
Document Actions
Species: Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)
Location: Antietam, MD
Status: Five Eastern Bluebirds fledged!
Location: Antietam, MD
Status: Five Eastern Bluebirds fledged!
|
July 3 - FLEDGING DAY PART 2! Surprisingly, the last two nestlings remained in the nest box alone, while their three siblings spent their first night out of the box. Here we see the fourth nestling exiting the box (bottom image) and within a few minutes, the last nestling emerges from the box for the last time (top). |
|
July 2 - FLEDGING DAY! As
evening approaches, the female enters the box, as if to encourage the young birds to leave
before nightfall (top photo) and peeks in for additional motivation (second from top). Shortly after the second nestling's departure, the third nestling musters up the courage to take flight (third from top) Three hours later, only three nestlings remain in the nest (fourth from top). Sometime around 2 PM, the first nestling leaves the nest. (second to bottom image) In the last twenty four hours, very little feeding activity by the parents has been recorded. This is their way of getting the birds to leave the box. The bottom photo, however, clearly shows the nestlings have something else in mind! |
|
July 1 - Now in their third week of life, the nestlings begin to develop motor coordination, allowing them to exercise their wings, stretch, stand on the hole entrance and even practice flying. |
|
June 30 - The female enters with the box with a some sort of larvae or caterpillar morsel. Since there is plenty of food to be had by all the nestlings, sibling conflicts are very rare. |
|
June 29 - Day 15 and all the young birds are now fully feathered. The nestlings could fledge as early as tomorrow. |
|
June 28 - A fluffy feathered nestling peers out the entrance hole. Now two weeks old, the nestlings are capable of short-distance flights. |
|
June 27 - Say AAAHH! The female will begin delivering food through the entrance hole rather than entering the box. This will entice the nestlings to begin moving towards the entrance hole. |
|
June 26 - The female is still on housekeeping duty as she is seen here, removing a fecal sac (nestling waste material) from the nest. |
|
June 25 - A silhouette of one of the parents peering into the box as the early evening sun immerses the nestlings in its light. |
|
June 24 - At ten days old, the nestlings will crawl and move about the box quite readily. It may look as if the nestlings are completely feathered, but it will be a few more days before the belly region is fully feathered. |
|
June 23 - Mouth to mouth to mouth feeding! The male passes a caterpillar through to the female who in turn will pass it on to one of the nestlings. |
|
June 22 - Just over a week old, the nestlings are capable of regulating their own body temperature, so the female will end up spending less and less time in the box with them. |
|
June 21 - While both parents are extremely attentive to the hungry nestlings, they are also parenting the five fledglings from the first brood which left the nest about five weeks ago. |
|
June 20 - Both parents are seen feeding the young who are now six days old and have opened their eyes. |
|
June 19 - The male is carrying a prey item to the female. Incredibly, it looks like a vertebrate, possibly a tadpole. If anyone has any guesses as to what the prey item is, please give us your thoughts. Note however, that what looks like a long leg in the upper right hand corner, is a piece of straw. |
 |
June 18 - The five three-day-old nestlings are already developing feathers and soon their wings will begin to darken. |
|
June 16 - By the end of day one, the young birds are capable of stretching their necks and opening their mouths, exposing their yellow-orange gape. |
|
June 15 - By 9AM, the last egg had hatched. Synchronous hatching of a clutch of eggs usually occurs within a 24 hour period. In this case, it took about 18 hours for all the eggs to hatch. |
|
June 14 - HATCHING DAY!!! The bottom image
shows the female removing the first eggshell from the nest. Approximately 10 minutes later, the female leaves the nest and exposes the first of five young (middle picture). During the course of the night, three of the four remaining eggs hatched, as evidenced by the top picture (June 15) which still has one egg. |
|
June 12 - Again, the male makes a visit to the nest box while the female is inside. Soon their lives will become much more hectic! |
|
June 11 - The female diligently rotates the eggs with her beak, typically every 20-30 minutes. The eggs could hatch as early as today. |
|
June 9 - One of the eggs appears to be thin and/or discolored. It may be nothing of concern or an early indication of a non-viable egg. |
|
June 9 - The male sits briefly on the eggs while the female is away from the nest. Unlike the female, he does not have a brood patch and is unable to actually incubate the eggs. |
|
June 7 - The male is seen once again in the box, possibly bringing food to the female while she incubates. |
|
June 6 - The view from this angle makes it look like the center egg is smaller than the rest. While runt eggs do occur, it appears that this is just a case of photographic illusion. |
|
June 5 - The male is seen in the box with the female during incubation—not something we typically see. |
|
June 4 - The female continues to redesign her nest box, even as she incubates the five eggs. |
|
June 3 - Curiously, a bird (presumably a parent to the eggs) is holding food in its beak in the entrance hole. Practicing for things to come? |
|
June 2 - The nest box is opened during a routine monitoring check of the box, shedding natural light on the azure eggs. |
|
May 31 - The female moves off the nest cup, exposing the fifth egg that was laid a moment before. This is the second clutch of five eggs for this ambitious female. |
|
May 30 - A fourth egg was laid today some time before 8:24 AM. The female may lay another egg, although typically, second clutches are smaller than first, especially in northern regions. |
|
May 29 - A third egg is laid, and if it is the penultimate (second-to-last) egg, she may begin incubating today. |
|
May 28 - Like clockwork, the second egg is laid almost 24 hours after the first. |
|
May 27 - First egg was laid within a 15 minute interval captured on video. |
|
May 26 - The female took about five days to complete her nest. |
|
May 24 - WOW! Now that's a mouthful! The female enters the box with a large amount of dried grass, enough to finish her nest cup. |
|
May 23 - While the male is tending to the young from the first nest attempt, the female is continuing to construct the nest without her mate's assistance. |
|
May 22 - Just days after young fledged from the first nest attempt, the female is busy building nest #2. Here she is using her body to mold the nesting materials into a cup-like shape. |
|
May 21 - The box was completely cleaned out after the first successful nesting attempt and in less than a week's time, new nesting material is brought in by the female bluebird for a second nest attempt. |