The Lost One

Everyone loves blue birds.  Right?  I mean what birdwatcher doesn't put up at least one mathmatically designed bird house that has just the right opening for a bluebird?  This doesn't mean that other birds will not use it, nor does it mean that the bluebird won't rent out a totally un-metric place to raise his/her young.  There are tons of posts on how to build a bluebird house and how to make the hole the exact optimum size (1.5 inches) and where to place it in your yard.

Last year the bluebirds used our ceramic house beneath the deck with its three inch wide hole.  Photos are here from that post.

This year two males and perhaps one female went in and out of that jar throughout February and March, but never settled on it.  Instead this year, a bluebird couple picked the brand new bluebird house that we had mounted on the arbor in March.

The female laid at least 4 eggs 9possibley more) that I could count on my quick peek, but everytime I went around the arbor to weed, or plant, or pick flowers, the male would 'snap' his wings with a click and then chirp and dive bomb me.  I tried to stay away as much as possible.  He was fearless and fearful.

This morning when hubby opened the front door to look at the front yard, we saw this little fledged bird on the porch looking tremendously lost.  

At first we guessed it might be a blackbird or cowbird because it looked pretty big.  Then when I studied the eye shape, I thought it might be a robin.  It did not fly away and allowed me to get close and snap a front view.

You can see from above that it is a little blue bird.  Its legs seem deformed, but I am not an expert on bird anatomy.  We tried to perch him in a nearby tree and he tottered over and then flew to the ground under the flowers.  I waited and watched for the parents for almost twenty minutes and they never showed.  All summer the parents had perched on this trellis or the fence posts, but they must have moved their young into the deep woods.

We put the fledge back in the house and actually brought it some caterpillars, but we did not see it feed.  Finally a bird rehabber told us to release it where we had last seen a parent.  We did and it flew through the fence into the woods only inches above the ground.  I hope he/she makes it, but I think this forlorn baby was the last of the group to hatch and is deformed in some way.  Sad, but it will be food for something else, and the bluebirds will probably build a second nest somewhere else.  We have a number of houses, so I will keep my eyes open for another clutch before the summer gets too warm.