Habitat
The Eastern Bluebird lives mainly around the mid eastern part of the
USA. It is a year round bird. Its breeding area is the upper portion
of the eastern USA.
Some of its natural predators that live in the area are House Sparrows,
Cats, Raccoons, Snakes, Wrens, and Hawks. The predators either hurt
the adults, hurt the young, or kill.
The Bluebirds eat plants such as poke weed, honey suckle, holly, and
crab apples. They also eat insects like caterpillar and grasshopper.
They like the food to be near their nest so they can easily feed the
young.
Reproduction
First the male goes out and finds a suitable territory and scopes
it out so that it knows were all the nesting areas are. Then it attacks
a female by singing a song. This song can be sung about 25 times per
minute. When the male spots a female it flies to one of the different
nesting areas and goes in or flies around the entrance. If the female
is interested she will go in and inspect it. If she does not like
it she will start to fly away till the male realizes it and shows
her another nest. This process goes on till either the male runs out
of nest to show or the female choses one and pairs up with the male.
Then the female makes her nest the way she wants it. If the male get
impatient it will charge at the female as if saying “hurry up”. When
they are settled with the nest they will mate.
The female crouches down and lifts her tail up. Then the male lands
on her back and bends down and makes contact to transfer the sperm.
The out sexual organs of males are alike, they are just openings called
cloches. When the mating is over and the eggs are laid, it is up to
the male to feed the female since she can not leave the nest. When
the young is born it takes 13 days till they are ready to go and leave
the nest. When the second breeding season comes by some times the
male and female stay to gather and some times the go and find a different
mate.
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A
male eastern blue bird
An Interesting Fact
Some times you will find a cowbirds eggs and young in bluebirds nest
and the blue birds are still tacking care of it. This kind of thing
is called egg dumping. Egg dumping is when a bird lays its egg in
anthers nest.
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