This summer I had the priviledge and joy of raising an orphaned Eastern Bluebird in Algonquin Highlands, Ontario.
This blog journals his daily growth, experiences and his successful release back into the wild where he belongs.
I hope you enjoy reading about Sammy, as much as I enjoyed caring for him and helping him learn how to be an Eastern Bluebird.
Catching moths has become quite the art form for Sammy, he does really well at catching them in the air and also off the screen walls of the aviary. His hunting skills continue to improve every day, and he is successful more times than not. I still help him hunt sometimes, by placing his insects in front of him on his feeding platform, like the green caterpillars in this video.
Spiders, beetles and big black ants seem to be a favourite of his over the last few days. He even caught a small spider in the house on the windowsill.
Here's a quick video of Sammy catching a spider.
I keep the curtains closed over the top half of the windows in our room where he gets indoor flight time, and the bottom half of the window is open to the screens. This way Sammy can still watch the world outside, which he seems to love doing, while avoiding flying into hard glass accidentally.
Morning and evening indoor flight time is getting stronger and stronger, he now flies the length of our bedroom 2 or 3 times before deciding to perch somewhere, usually one of the curtain rods or a window sill.
Sammy "hiding" from the Blue Jay family
Cuddle-time before bed is still going on, and still initiated by Sammy. I don't call him to me or encourage him in any way to land on me. And I've decided that as long as he wants or needs to, I'm going to let him continue. I know some people say that we can't and shouldn't attach feelings to birds or animals, but I don't believe that. This little guy is actively seeking out my companionship and wanting (needing?) to be physically close to me. I believe I would do him more harm by refusing him this contact, than in continuing to allow him to have it, but only when he chooses to do so. Almost every living creature needs some kind of contact with another living creature throughout their lives, at one time or another - for Sammy, I'm all he's got for now. On a lighter note, I truly enjoy the time he spends pressed up against my neck or under my ponytail. It's so peaceful, calming and heartwarming enjoying this little bird's affections, and I am grateful he has triumphantly made it this far.
This morning, a very loud family of 5 Blue Jays came to help themselves to the bird feeders near Sammy's aviary. The fledglings wing quivered, shook and cawed/screamed incredibly loud chasing their parent(s) branch to branch for handouts. I don't think Sammy likes Blue Jays very much, he seemed to look nervous and sat very still while intently watching them. Either that, or he just thought they were loud and annoying, disturbing his sunny, quiet morning. One of them landed on top of his aviary and peered inside, which made Sammy promptly fly to one of his sheltered perches to "hide". Our other small songbirds fly away when a Blue Jay comes in, so it's good that he seems to know he should fly away and take cover. As far as I know, they don't harm or attack other birds, although they have been known to occassionally steal and eat other songbird eggs and even nestlings.
A few times today, I've seen Sammy feeding himself mealworms from his dish, although he continues to beg and wing quiver to be fed, like a typical fledgling. He's also been spending some time on the ground pecking and eating ants and who knows what else. How he can see those tiny little brown ants from up on his perch is beyond me, amazing eyesight he has. He also successfully hunted a cricket he spied on the grass. He still likes to land me on often, I guess he thinks I'm another one of his perches.
Here he is checking out his cedar branches.
We had a black bear in the backyard this evening, just strolling along a few feet from the back porch. We are in bear country and ususally see one a couple times at least every spring and summer. This past spring, the bear pulled down my bird feeder pole and ate all the seeds. My own fault for forgetting to bring them in for the night, something we have to do in every season except winter. The bears wake up hungry in the spring, and bird feeders are such an easy meal for them.
Sammy continues to beg and gape for food, thank goodness! It was quite a long time waiting for him to start doing this and I'm so glad I don't have to pry his beak open anymore. I bet he is too! When he sees me coming to his aviary, he starts chirping, gaping and quivering like crazy. He readily eats live crickets and grasshoppers, and of course his beloved mealworms. His nestling formula...not so much, lol.
He also began a new habit of calling and landing on the screen door of the aviary when he's hungry. I guess he figured out that his meal delivery service (me) comes through that door, lol.
Sammy has enjoyed a couple more baths since my last post, he is a picture of pure, uninhibited pleasure while he bathes. He dunk his face and breast into his shallow bath and shakes his head back and forth vigorously. Then he lowers his back end into the water and beats his wings quickly, getting thoroughly soaked. I'll post a video of bathtime soon! Sammy's bath is a shallow, clear plastic tray for a plant pot that is lined with small pebbles to give him sure footing.
Playing with a twig in the bath
Sammy makes puts on quite the show when he preens after his bath, flapping his wings so fast you can barely seem them moving. He pulls his beak down the length of individual feathers grooming them methodically.
Sammy preening under his wings after a bath
Stretching and drying out his wings
Thoroughly soaked from his bath
Spreading his amazing, vivid blue wings
He has also started drinking little sips of water from either his bath or water dish. He dips his beak in, gets a couple drops and then tilts his head far back and swallows.
Flying down to the grass is common now, I think he is hunting little brown ants on the ground, but I'm not sure. He likes to spend a fair amount of time perched on a branch that runs up the side of his aviary facing the seed feeders, just taking in his surroundings and the other birds. He doesn't seem to like when blue jays come in, they're such noisy birds when they announce their arrival, and Sammy usually flies back up to his sheltered corner perch until they leave.
Watching the sky above him
Cuddling continues to be something Sammy initiates, landing on my shoulder and then tucking himself under my ponytail or against my neck. He's also a little intrigued by my eyeglasses and pecks them sometimes.
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.
After staying up til after 2am reading and researching everything I could find on raising wild baby Eastern Bluebirds and songbirds, I woke up this morning at 6:45am to the beautiful sound of soft cheeping from the little nestling. The joy I felt hearing him was wondrous. He made it through the night!!
He had pooped over the edge of his "nest" a couple of times through the night, which was another good sign! Usually, the nestlings wiggle their butts up over the edge of the nest to poop while helpt to keep the nest clean. Tidy little guy!
I fed him right away, still having to gently pry open his soft, little yellow beak. He wiggled his little butt after eating and promptly had a poop on paper towel. His poops are very easy to clean up, it's contained in a white balloon-like sack. His parents would have carried it away and dropped away from the nest site. They do this to keep the nest clean and so that the scent doesn't attract predators.
I fed him every 30 minutes during the morning and he seemed to have his own schedule of pooping right before and after each feeding session. From what I had read, the poops looked like they should, which should mean that he was healthy and his bodily systems were working fine.
At his 12:30pm feeding, his left eye opened up just a slit, right on track with my estimate of him being 9-10 days old today. His wing feathers grew a tiny bit more and his tail feathers are about 4mm long (1/7 of an inch). His head is getting a bit fluffier and the down getting a wee bit sparser. There are also white dust speckles on his body, which is from the feather sheaths starting to disintegrate. His abdomen is still bare, also his back, butt and the tops of his legs. He began spreading his wings out slightly and was crawling around a bit, which was terrific to see! He was making progress!
I went and bought a little food scale this morning, as I found out what his weight should be and how much he should be gaining each day til he fledges. I weighed him at 11:30am, right after his poop, and he weighed 25 grams (8/10ths of an ounce), which was perfect.
Eastern Bluebird Nestling - Day Two of Care - 9 to 10 days old
I kept feeding him every half hour throughout the day, except for when I had to pick up my grand-daughter, Audrina, from Junior Kindergarten. That interval was 45 minutes, but he seemed fine. By mid-afternoon, both his eyes were opening up halfway. Beautiful little dark eyes they were! I wish he had been able to see his parents rather than me the first time he opened his eyes.
Audrina named the baby Melody, as she hoped he was a girl, lol. At this point I wasn't sure whether it was a girl or a boy, although I was leaning toward boy as the small feathers looked very blue, not grayish-blue. As time went on, by about 13 -16 days old, I was certain he was a boy and he was named Sammy, by my 3 year old grand-daughter, Tenley.
He did well all throughout the day and evening, feeding and pooping as he should, and moving around a little bit. It was quite a hectic schedule, feeding him every half hour as well as caring for my two little grand-daughters. But what an amazing day it has been, seeing the slight changes in him from the day before and feeling much better about his health and strength than I was yesterday. I really believe he has a real chance at surviving and I am going to do everything in my power to see that he does.
His last feeding was at 10pm, again I wanted him to have a couple extra feeds before bed, just to make sure he was fine.
Some of the pics and videos in this blog were taken with my Iphone 5C and some were taken with my Nikon 3200. I am just learning photography, so some pics will be great and some
Recued Eastern Bluebird Nestling - 8 to 9 days old
During the drive, after I picked up supplies, I stopped every 30 minutes to check on and feed the little nestling. I had made the food mixture in a parking lot in my car using a plastic spoon and a disposable soup bowl with a lid. I fed Sammy with a coffee stir stick during the drive and had to gently pry open his beak each time...he just would not gape.
He seemed a little weak, I don't know how long he was without food. I had checked on the nestlings the day before around noon and rescued him around noon today, so it could have been up to 24 hours since he last was fed by his parents. He swallowed the food fine once it was placed in the back of his mouth, although I was pretty messy with it. It's going to take a bit of practice to get the hang of this! I fed him 2 or 3 little bits of the food mixture at each feeding.
We arrived at our destination around 6:30pm and I promptly fed him again and moved him into his terrarium covered with a towel. My son, Jason, couldn't believe I showed up with a baby bird!
His daughters, Audrina-almost 5 and Jaelyn-two and a half, thought the baby bird was just the cutest thing. Especially Jaelyn, she seems to have a soft spot for living things. She has enjoyed watching the blue jays and other birds when up north at our home and will sit for several minutes watching them. When she saw the baby bird, she softened her voice and cooed "hello baby birdie" to him.
She wanted to hold him so badly, but I couldn't let her, she was just too young and the baby bird was just too little. She watched me feed him and said "night-night" to him and blew him a kiss and a hug when I placed him back in his little nest. Audrina thought he was adorable and so little, she enjoyed seeing him too and was very quiet when she watched me feed him.
I fed him that night every 30 minutes until 10:30pm, later than the rehabber said, but I felt he needed the extra food as he didn't seem to be very strong. He still wouldn't voluntarily gape, even after gently rubbing the side of his beak and tapping it lightly. I had to pry his beak open with my fingernail for every morsel, which I hated doing to him, although once I had it open a tiny bit, his beak seemed to fully open almost by his own free will. It wasn't a struggle, I didn't have to "force" it open and it didn't seem to be uncomfortable or stressful for him. He just didn't seem to know or understand that he needed to open his beak so I could feed him.
After the last feeding, I placed him back in his terrarium nest, covered it with a towel and put him near me on the table beside the couch where I slept. I was worrried about him and wanted to be able to check on him throughout the night. I wished him a safe night and begged him to please make it until morning, then I settled down on the couch to try to sleep.
Rescue Day of Eastern Bluebird Nestling - 8 to 9 days old
