- The male Eastern Bluebird is a brilliant royal blue on the back and head and warm red-brown on the breast. Blue tinges in the wings and tail give the greyer females an elegant look.
- Eastern Bluebirds can be found in open country with patchy vegetations and large trees, meadows, old fields or golf courses. Bluebirds typically sit in the open on power lines or along fences.
- They don't often visit backyard feeders but they will use nest boxes put up in your yard, if they aren't too hemmed in by trees or houses.
- Insects caught on the ground are a bluebird's typical meal though major prey include caterpillars, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and spiders. During the fall and winter seasons, bluebirds eat large amounts of fruit including mistletoe, sumac, blueberries, black cherries, tupelo, currants, wild holly, dogwood berries, hackberries, honeysuckle, bay, pokeweed and juniper berries. Though rare, Eastern Bluebirds have been recorded to eat larger prey such as salamanders, shrews, snakes, lizards and tree frogs.
- The male Eastern Bluebird displays at its nest cavity to attract a female. He brings nest material to the hole, enters and exits it, and waves its wings, staying perched above the cavity. That's pretty much its contribution to nest building. The female eastern bluebird is the one that buils the nest and incubates the eggs.
- Eastern Bluebirds typically have 1-3 successful broods per year; clutch size can be 2-7 pale blue eggs. Early nests usually leave their parents in summer, but young from later nests frequently stay with their parents through the winter season.
- Average lifespan in the wild is 6-10 years; the oldest recorded Eastern Bluebird was 10 years, 5 months old.
- Bluebirds are considered fairly common these days, but their number had declined significantly during the last century. Thanks to nest boxes that are now seen in parks and backyards, their populations have been given a boost.
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Information paraphrased from allaboutbirds.org
