Bluebirds Feeding Young – Late in the Season
A pair of Eastern Bluebirds are now making frequent trips in and out of the bluebird box in the front yard. Carolina Chickadees occupied the box earlier in the season, while Bluebirds nested instead in our neighbor’s bluebird house. I thought nesting was pretty much over for this year, but these two are apparently feeding young. The female makes most of the trips in and out, while the male perches in a nearby tree. But I think now and then he goes in with food, too.
They often sit close together, bills parted, panting, in the branches of river birches on the far side of the yard from the nest box. From there the female drops down to the grass to hunt, then swoops low across the yard and up and into the opening of the box.