Eastern Bluebirds sing a happier tune in Wisconsin
Nest box help spurs recovery after steep decline by the 1980s
Male and female Eastern Bluebirds bring caterpillars back for their young. Photo: Chuck Henrikson
While the first Bobolinks and Dickcissels depart in July for wintering grounds in South America, Eastern Bluebirds are among the songbirds still raising their young. And these days, Eastern Bluebirds are singing a happier tune!
That's thanks to the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin, BRAW for short, and scores of bird clubs and other conservation organizations and individuals who have put out and monitored bluebird nest boxes over the years. Groups like the MuirLand Bird Club and the Grand River Chapter of Ducks Unlimited, which have celebrated World Bird Day in Montello over the past 13 years by helping kids build bluebird houses. On May 4, 2024, they helped kids build another 100 bluebird houses!
Collectively, efforts by these and other groups and individuals have reversed what had been by the 1980s a 90 percent plunge in Eastern Bluebird populations in Wisconsin, in part due to the loss of the natural cavities bluebirds need to nest. Bluebirds take advantage of old woodpecker holes and existing nooks and crannies in trees to nest; as these natural cavities have disappeared, nest boxes have played an increasingly important role in helping hatch new generations of a bird long regarded around the world as a symbol of happiness, good health and hope.
In 2023, 14,790 bluebirds fledged from boxes maintained and monitored by Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin members, 8% higher in 2022.
Learn more about why these nest boxes and important and why Eastern Bluebirds are known as the “Bluebirds of Happiness” in this May 2022 article in the Door County Pulse by Charlotte Lukes, who has coordinated BRAW’s Door County’s nest-box monitors since 2007.
The annual convention of the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin is Saturday, Sept. 7, at Horicon Marsh Visitor Center in Horicon. Learn more and register.
Members of the MuirLand Bird Club and the Grand River Chapter of Ducks Unlimited help a boy install a bluebird house on a pole. Photo: Daryl Christensen
Bluebirds return to Wisconsin in March and can nest two or three times total across spring and summer, according to BRAW. The females weave fine soft grasses into a nesting cup, often in nesting boxes and also in natural hollows in trees or old woodpecker holes.
They normally lay 4 to 6 light blue eggs, and upon hatching, the young mature in the nest for 15 to 20 days. During that time, both parents feed the youngsters high-protein diets that include mainly caterpillars and other insects. The parents will feed the chicks for about three weeks after they have left the nest. Some of the young may assist their parents in caring for the second brood.
A week or two after the fledglings leave the nest the mother bird may nest again in the same box, according to BRAW. That's why the organization recommends cleaning out nest boxes as soon as the fledglings have left the nest.
Thank you to BRAW and all of the organizations and individuals who are helping save this beautiful songbird!
Hatchlings in a nest inside a nest box. Photo: Nansi Colley (Bluebird Trail monitoring with Sylvia Marek)
Young Eastern Bluebirds ready to fledge. Photo: Nansi Colley (Bluebird Trail monitoring with Sylvia Marek)
Four beautiful blue eggs nestled inside a nest box are the second brood of the season.
Photo: Nansi Colley (Bluebird Trail monitoring with Sylvia Marek)