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The Bay Area is alive with bluebirds
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Western Bluebird
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the bluebirds are taking wing and making their presence known. In bluebird populated areas, you can readily see them busy gathering grub (literally) for their young.
Pictures don’t do the little bird justice as they are quite stunning in real life. The males carry intense blues with iridescent purples on their backs, which tend to make people gasp when they see him. The females wear duller gray shades of blue, and both sexes are about seven inches long with rusty-colored bellies.
The bluebird’s song is melodious and sweet – yet another reason people love to have them visiting their yards. One of the best-loved and well-known birds anywhere, bluebirds are more than just a pretty face.
They are extremely helpful birds in the garden and the yard consuming thousands of insect pests including beetles and grasshoppers. Bluebirds are the ultimate in organic pest control. It’s a smart gardener that lures bluebirds to the vegetable garden.
You’ll find bluebirds in areas with wide-open spaces and scattered trees, fields, and brushy grasslands, meadows and golf courses. In the warm months, bluebird cuisine consists of mostly insects. However, in the cool months, bluebirds depend on wild berries for most of their meals.
Attracting Bluebirds to your yard
If you want to have bluebirds hanging around your place, build it and they will come. These beauties don’t eat from bird feeders, so these types of lures are going to fall flat as far as a bluebird is concerned. Your best bet is to appeal to their nesting needs.
Bluebirds are cavity-nesters and readily use nesting boxes put out especially for them. The entrance holes in the nesting boxes do need to be specific or intruding species will take up residence instead of the bluebirds – sometimes throwing the bluebird eggs out to move in.
If you have dead trees in your yard (snags) and it's safe, please leave them up for many different species of wildlife to call home as well as the bluebirds.
When you're purchasing a box, be sure to purchase one specific to bluebirds. They also need to be mounted from 3–20 feet above the ground. Another thing that can bring bluebirds by is a place to bathe. Bluebirds are big on bathing, so get a birdbath out in the yard or garden. Don’t forget to plant shrubs that produce berries such as elderberries or bayberries as food for the cold months.
Bluebird monitoring
Due to invasive species of cavity-nesting birds being introduced as well as disappearing habitats, the bluebird populations were in danger. The North American Bluebird Society has since created not only an awareness of the issue, but also a bluebird monitoring program to increase bluebird populations.
If you’re interested in monitoring bluebirds in you area, contact The North American Bluebird Society.
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