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.
Showing posts with label flying in place. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flying in place. Show all posts
Last night, I put him snug inside his container nest into his indoor cage. This cage is a medium dog crate, with fibreglass window screening securely sewn with yarn around the sides and the top. The fibreglass window screening is so he doesn't break any feathers when he starts flying, which the bars of the cage or wire-mesh window screening could possibly do.
Sammy's indoor cage with kleenex box nest and perches with cedar branch shelter
Beautiful blue wing feathers
At his 3rd feeding of the morning, I had a bit of a happy shock to find him standing on the edge of his container nest! More progress toward fledging the "nest"!!
In the early afternoon, when I went to feed him, he had left his nest and either walked/hopped/flew around his cage! What a startling and wondrous sight to see him out of and away from his nest! He was about 10 inches from his nest!
Fledging has begun..sort of!
Sammy is now 16 to 17 days old and still refusing to gape, but continues to eat well and willingly once the food is in his mouth. He does a lot of super-fast "flying in place", stretching, scratching his head and preening his wing and body feathers. You can actually see him get a single feather in his beak and slide his beak along the length of each little feather.
He loves to stand up tall on his feet and stretch his neck out looking proud as punch!
Sammy stretching tall and proud!
I had caught him a couple of bright green, inch long caterpillars this morning and he was quite curious watching them, but he didn't make any attempts to grab them.
Sammy's blue tail feathers are about an inch long now and simply stunning!
Before bedtime tonight, he began flapping his wings vigorously and hopped/walked at the same time. He's sooo close to flying now! Every new thing Sammy does is simply amazing and breath-taking..I feel so proud of him and how far he has come. I don't think it will be long before baby blue is taking his first flight.
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.
