Hunting Beetles

Sammy has become quite the hunter during the past couple of days.  He has been flying down from perches catching and eating grasshoppers on the ground.  He holds one in his beak for a couple seconds at a time, then drops it, picks it up again, shakes it a bit, holds it, drops it and repeats this process until he decides it's ready to be swallowed whole.  He seems to prefer the smaller, green grasshoppers over the bigger brownish ones.

He has caught a few moths in his aviary either on the ground or on his feeding platform, holding them and dropping them as well before he eats them.  I catch moths at night under the porch lights and release them in his aviary in the morning. And, of course, he stills loves his mealworms!

And new for him, he now "hunts" black ground beetles.  These I find under rocks for him and place them on his feeding platform or on the ground for him to hunt.  Today, he saw one on the grass, flew down, caught it and beat it up before he ate it.

Here are a couple of videos showing off Sammy's beetle hunting skills.

So although he is becoming quite the little hunter, he is still quite the little beggar!  When I enter his aviary, he quivers his wings, leans forward, cheeps and gapes wide open for a free meal.  What a cutie!

Sammy is still enjoying his baths, he gets himself totally drenched and then meticulously preens his feathers.  He's also been drinking water during the day.

Sammy relaxing on my shoulder

Cuddle time before "bed" happened again last night.  His choice, and I still believe if that is what he needs/wants - company, companionship and comfort - then who was I to deny him?  He nestled right in against my neck and sat there quietly for about 15 minutes before I put him to bed for the night.

I put a sideways kleenex box, with the "entrance" side completely cut out, in a corner of his indoor cage, lined with a few kleenexes.  Eastern Bluebirds are known to roost in cavities and even nestboxes, and I thought he might like sleeping in it.  I placed him in it at lights out last night and this morning, he was still in there when I uncovered his cage.  Sammy had a good long stretch before he hopped out of the kleenex box, then he perched on the opening of his cage for a few seconds before flying out and landing on my shoulder.  He must have liked the kleenex box to roost in, maybe the shelter it provides him, it gave him a feeling of security too.

Today, Sammy is 33-34 days old.

Eastern Bluebird nestling development

Sammy had a good day again today. He did a lot of  "flying in place", which is so strong and fast now!  He's also preening and scratching quite often and I get quite a kick out of watching him stretch. Sammy often stands up very tall on his feet now rather than on both his feet and lower legs, although he still rests on his feet and lower legs at times.

His tail feathers have grown to about 1cm (almost half an inch) and his wing feathers are continuing to grow.  They are such a pretty blue (I guess I should say handsome, as he is a boy, lol).

I played Eastern Bluebird songs and calls again this morning, and he seemed a bit nervous or scared this time.  I will try playing them again later this afternoon.

He has started to become interested in things he sees now and is exploring things..like my garnet ring that he likes to lightly peck, lol.

I had quite a surprise when I went to feed him at 5pm.  He had crawled/hopped/fluttered out of his kleenex filled container nest and was on the floor of the terrarium! I think he must be getting close to flying and "fledging" his nest.

Sammy age 15 to 16 days

Eastern Bluebirds are cavity nesters but they don't make them, rather they use old woodpecker holes and other natural cavities in trees and wooden fence posts.  They also will readily use nestboxes. Unfortunately though, they have competition for them, as well as for the natural cavities.  House sparrows and european starlings will often attack nestlings, and even the adults, which is what happened to Sammy's siblings.  They will peck them on the head to kill them and sometimes will toss them out of the nestbox.  They will peck holes in the eggs, too.  Both attacks are so they can take over the nestbox or natural cavity.  If the mother Eastern Bluebird is in the nestbox when attacking bird enters, it will attack the adult until it either escapes and abandons the nest or until it is killed.  Eastern Bluebirds have an incredibly strong protection instinct and often lose their lives to these non-native birds rather than abandon their eggs or babies.  They also have competition for nesting sites from nuthatches, chickadees and tree swallows.

The scientic name for Eastern Bluebird is Sialia Sialis, and the Sialis website is a wonderful, informative source all about Eastern Bluebirds, putting up nestboxes or starting an Eastern Bluebird nestbox trail.  Also, the Ontario Eastern Bluebird Society has instructions on making nestboxes for Eastern Bluebirds, plus other interesting information on this beautiful songbird.

Sammy age 15 to 16 days