This Is MY Yard

Eastern Bluebirds seem to be early risers, just like their "cousins" the American Robin, both in the Thrush family.  Sammy was up bright and early yesterday morning waiting to greet Frank when he went outside with his morning coffee and a dish of mealworms for his buddy.  He was quite hungry and gobbled up about 14 mealworms in two short-spaced visits.  He was back 3 more times that I know of in the morning, eating another 15 or so mealworms and 3 moths I had caught for him.

Having an early breakfast

I've moved his dish to a hanger on one of the front porch posts so the other songbirds don't eat his food on him.  He comes under the porch to visit us often, so I think it will be a good place for it.

It's been quite interesting watching Sammy hunt.  He first locates a bug from a perch with his excellent eyesight, turning his head sideways staring intently at it, then quickly dives to the ground to capture it.  Sometimes his prey is consumed on the ground, other times he returns to the same perching spot and eats it up there.  Larger prey, such as beetles, grasshoppers and crickets, he smashes against the ground or a branch over and over again before he finally eats it.  The eyesight of Eastern Bluebirds is excellent and they can spot small prey from more than 60 feet away!

Scanning the ground for prey

Feather development is continuing..we can see the changes almost daily. The blue on his shoulders is becoming more pronounced, as well as the russet on his sides.  Only the edges of his beak near his face are still soft and yellow, as his beak is hardening and turning black.

Notice the blue on his shoulder, russet coming through on his sides
and just the corners of his beak remain soft & yellow

Throughout the day we hear Sammy's soft, low-pitched call and it is a beautiful, almost haunting sound. Sometimes I'm sure he's calling for us to locate him as he would have done with his parents in the wild.  He may also be calling trying to locate other Eastern Bluebirds, as this call is also sung for that purpose.

Another sign of Sammy's continued development is his territorial behaviour of protecting his yard. During breeding season, Eastern Bluebirds continually defend their feeding grounds from other birds, including other bluebirds, and sometimes this continues on into winter.  Sammy obviously isn't mature enough to be considering breeding, but he is definitely starting to show signs of being a strong, defensive bluebird.

Flying down to claim one of the seed feeders

Sammy trying a peanut..which he spit out

We have a juvenile Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker that frequents the trees in our front yard and today, Sammy chased the youngster into the woods out of "his" yard.

The cute juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Sammy chased

An adult male American Goldfinch, who was eating at one of our seed feeders, was also run out of town by Sammy.  After he was done chasing it away, he perched on the feeder pole for a couple of minutes like he was the king of his domain. He is so comical to watch, constantly putting smiles on our faces and making us laugh.

Bathing seems to be one of Sammy's passions that he gets right in to.  He seems to have developed a little habit or ritual to his bathing.  He starts with a really quick little bath, with only a few splashes before he flies off to a perch to preen a bit.  Then he comes back to the bath and gets himself totally soaked, dunking his head and breast repeatedly into the water while shaking his head back and forth. Sometimes he spreads his tail out while fluttering his wings getting himself drenched.  Some of his baths last for well over a minute and even longer, like a little kid who doesn't want to get out of the tub! Here's a quick video of him splashing about, with my 2 year old grand-daughter, Jaelyn, talking in the background!

After his bath, Sammy flies up to a perch in the beech tree that seems have become a favourite spot to do his preening.

Preening after his bath

In this next quick video, Sammy is meticulously preening after his bath!

Forming habits seems to a trait of his, as he slept the last two nights in the same place again...on a sheltered branch of the driveway beech tree.  Looks like a good safe spot to me, it's really hard to see him once he gets himself settled in.

Today Sammy is 53-54 days old and doing splendidly!