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May 23, 2007
Baby Eastern Bluebirds
Well, it looks like I've adopted some more varmints. This time, it's a nest of three baby Eastern Bluebirds. Two girls and one boy. Their mother died in a tragic automobile accident. She built her nest in a newspaper box, and got run over by the mailman. So, the mom was deceased, and the father just sort of hung around like..."heck, I'm not feeding them...that's woman's work...besides...I'm not even sure they're mine." One of them died yesterday, so I decided to take the three that were living and see if I could raise them.
At first, I was afraid they wouldn't eat. I was trying to feed them Food Lion dog food soaked in a bowl of water and mashed with a fork. I fed them this concoction with tweezers and an eye dropper. Then, after lunch, I bought them some meal worms and crickets. You wouldn't think that birds this small could eat a full-sized cricket. They were pretty scared at first, but now, they're used to me. They scarf down live crickets and meal worms that I feed them by hand. They suck them down alive in one piece, like it's no big deal. Pretty funny to watch.
Their beaks don't really look that big until they open them up. Then, it looks like you could put a Magic 8 Ball down their throats no problem.
According to this website, the mom and dad both take care of feeding/raising the birds. It also says that they will fly after 17 days, so these birds are pretty close to flying. They also point out that a blue jay killed one of their fledglings, so I'll have to watch for Blue Jays when we release the baby Bluebirds.
The Bluebirds hatched on Saturday May 12th, so they are almost two weeks old. They should be flying by Tuesday.
Posted by Rob Kiser on May 23, 2007 at 4:51 PM
Comments
So you had a bday
Happy Birthday
Pretty cool about the birds
They are cute and funny to watch
Posted by: L on May 25, 2007 at 10:55 PM
pretty cool..a birthday present to yourself.. hope you had a happy.
Posted by: sl on May 23, 2007 at 08:29 PM
So you had a bday
Happy Birthday
Pretty cool about the birds
They are cute and funny to watch
Posted by: L on May 25, 2007 at 11:34 PM
pretty cool..a birthday present to yourself.. hope you had a happy.
Posted by: SL on May 26, 2007 at 4:54 AM
Athens, AL. I got to your article on the bluebirds thru google. I suddenly found myself the caretaker of 3 eggs in a nest. The parents built the nest in a temp-power pole at a construction site. The electricians came in to install the meter, found the nest, then decided to remove the nest to a spot on the ground in the shade. I grabbed it up and moved to a spot under the eave of my house in hopes that the parents would find the new nest site. I watched helplessly for two days as they kept reutrning to the construction site, but they didn't seem to be able to find it. I now have the nest in a box in my house, under a fluorescant light keeping the temerature at about 75 degrees. The eggs themselves can't be more than about 4 days old. Do you think I have a chance to save them? Any advice?
Posted by: Richard Brown on May 29, 2010 at 9:30 PM