BLUE BIRDS

      There are bluebirds, such as eastern bluebirds, and there are blue birds, including eastern bluebirds, indigo buntings and blue grosbeaks.  These species of beautiful, small birds raise young across much of the eastern United States.

     Males of each of these lovely species are mostly blue, their breeding plumages, and most appealing feature.  Their mates and young, however, have earthy feathering, which camouflages them.

     Males of each kind sing pretty songs to establish territory, discourage rival males and attract mates for rearing offspring.  Their delightful songs also indicate the presence of each species to us.  

     Male eastern bluebirds have the most beautiful blue feathering on their upperparts that I have ever seen.  I remember seeing a pair of them in flight in our garden when I was about eight years old and thinking how bright and noticeable the male's blue feathering was.  I was impressed.  Female bluebirds have mostly light-gray feathering, with some blue feathers in their wings and tails.

     Eastern bluebirds raise chicks in tree cavities, abandoned woodpecker holes and boxes erected for them to nest in.  The female of each pair lays about four pale-blue eggs in a nesting hollow and both parents feed invertebrates to their young.  Many pairs of bluebirds attempt to rear two broods per summer. 

     While some bluebirds drift south in October to escape northern winters, others of that species stay north all winter when they daily dine on berries and shelter into tree cavities and bird boxes late in the afternoon for the night.  Several of them pack into each hollow to share body heat. 

     Male indigo buntings are a lovely indigo-blue all over in spring and summer, but their mates and young of the year are brown all over.  I hear, then see, male indigos singing beautifully from treetops in hedgerows and woodland edges.  Meanwhile, their camouflaged mates build grassy, open-cup cradles in bushes in tangled thickets of shrubbery and vines.  Indigos feed invertebrates to their offspring and, later, migrate south to Central America to avoid northern winters.  

     Late in summer, I see a few indigo bunting males singing from corn tassels on the edges of  corn fields.  I've wondered why they do that.  Maybe the tall corn stalks remind them of successional woods where they helped raise young.  Or maybe they leave thickets when the young fledge so those fledglings, and female indigos, have more invertebrates to ingest, without competition for food from the males.              

     Male blue grosbeaks are a striking deep-blue, with two beige wing bars on each wing.  Their mates and young of the year are brown, which blends them into their surroundings.  Males sing delightfully from shrubbery, while their mates build open-cup, grassy nurseries in bushes and vines.  Like the indigos, blue grosbeak parents feed invertebrates to their young, and migrate south in fall to avoid northern winters.    

      As a species, the handsome blue grosbeaks are gradually pushing ever northward to nest.  They are raising young today in southeastern Pennsylvania where they were absent before. 

     These blue birds are attractive small birds that are delightfully found in their natural nesting habitats.  They are exciting to hear and see.  And all these species could be neighbors of each other, which would make wonderful birding.  Watch for these lovely kinds of birds in farmland in summer.