Eastern Bluebird Fledgling Starting to Feed Himself

Sammy has been doing wonderfully the last 3 days, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, and putting up with the rain.  We had heavy rain and thunder a couple of days and he kept himself as dry as he could.  During the majority of the rains, he sat under the shrub in the pot and sometimes on a perch under the corner roof.  These two spots are his favourites actually, rain or shine.

Sammy and his potted shrub

During the first day of heavy rains, I brought him inside after a bit, he was damp and a bit cool out there.  I dried him off with a soft towel and held him in my hands for a bit, then put him back in his indoor cage nestled in the towel.

Sometimes I think he is starting to "wild up" since he frequently backs away from me now when I approach him.  He's fine though, once I pick him up, or encourage him to hop onto my hand, so I can feed him.  And other times, he flies on to my head or shoulder and sits comfortably.  Feeding time is getting better, most of the time now if I gently rub his beak or barely begin to pry it open, he opens up wide all on his own and starts grasping at the food and swallows it.  So, I guess you could call that definite progress, lol.

His flying is still strong and sure, and his feathers don't show any sign of developing "stress bars". Stress bars can appear on feathers when the bird's diet is lacking, so I'm glad he doesn't have any.
His tail is now about 3/4 of an inch long and is a stunning vivid blue, the same as on his primary and secondary wings.  I swear it gets bluer every day. Simply gorgeous! His weight came in at 30 grams tonight, which is perfect!

New foods are becoming a part of his diet now, live moths and red elderberries off the stem.  I've started leaving the porch lights on for a bit at night and then going out to catch moths for him. I'm not going to feed him any bright coloured ones, as I've read that can mean they're toxic or poison.  His first moth, I fed to him with blunt tweezers when he opened his mouth a bit on his own for me.  After that, when I hold a fluttering moth in the tweezers, he pokes at them and tries really hard to get them in his beak and sometimes does.  And today, he actually caught a small live moth on his own off the screen side of his aviary!  His first successful hunt!

Sammy age 22-23 days old in his aviary

He has elderberries on the stem tied onto his perches and has been investigating them.  It's so cute to watch him poke at them and sometimes he succeeds in pulling one off.  Most of them he drops, but he has eaten a few.  After eating, he does some of his own personal hygiene now and wipes the sides of his beak on his perches or on wherever he happens to be. Clean little guy!

Watching the other birds is a favourite passtime of Sammy's now, he doesn't seem disturbed by them in the least, just interested.  Well, except for the blue jays when they come squawking in..then he usually "freezes" where he is, trying to be invisible I think.

Sammy still sleeps indoors in his cage overnight, and stays tucked in his cozy kleenex box until I take his towel off the cage in the morning.  I don't want to leave him outside overnight yet, we have black bears up here and have had a mom and cub around the house a few times this season, so I don't want to risk them knocking over his aviary and freeing him before he's ready.  We also have pine martens, fishers, minks, raccoons, weasels and other critters that I wouldn't want to get in there during the night since he would be trapped in there with them.  I just want to keep him safe for as long as he's in my care.

Today makes Sammy 22-23 days old.