Winter Bluebird Update
Today is a cold and windy winter day, but as we sit inside drinking hot tea and reading seed catalogs, we are able to watch the bluebirds coming to the feeder. There are times we have more than four of the birds visiting at one time, and they really are enjoyable to see.
Eastern bluebirds are simply beautiful. You can enjoy watching them year round in the Southeastern United States. In the Northeast, they will arrive in Springtime and stay for the breeding season.
We attract bluebirds by feeding them in the winter —— they love mealworms! If it snows, you will really see a lot of bluebirds at your feeder.
Bluebirds feed on grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, earthworms and other insects during the warm season. In the winter, bluebirds eat berries from dogwoods, hollies, service-berry, and other trees and bushes.
Hang a feeder on your deck, in the garden, or outside a window where you can watch them come and go. We like to hang our feeders close to the windows so we can easily watch the birds. The cats love watching them, too!
The simplest feed to use for bluebirds is freeze dried meal worms. You can purchase them from a local bird store or online. With Suzanne regularly feeding our bluebirds, we had over eight nesting pairs on our property last year, and some of those pairs had two clutches of eggs! So, we really saw a lot of bluebirds.
We have three bluebird houses around our garden, and in the summer Suzanne trains some of the bluebird pairs to come on command. She simply puts the mealworms into a small blue feeder bowl, taps the glass of the bowl with her ring, and walks away. After doing this a handful of times, the bluebirds will show up as soon as they hear Suzanne tapping on the glass bowl!
If you feed your bluebirds in the summer, you will need to switch to live meal worms, or stop feeding the birds, when they are feeding their young. The change to live mealworms is necessary because the nestlings rely upon their food for water, and freeze dried mealworms contain little water. For detailed information, check out the Mealworm Fact Sheet online at the National Bluebird Society.
We like to feed the bluebirds using small wire basket feeders. They are inexpensive and simple to hang, fill and clean. If you can’t mount the hanging baskets close to your window, or you have a loved one who is hard of seeing, we recommend a window mount feeder. And your cat will really love the window-mounted feeder, too!
Remember, you need easy access to the outside of the window to refill a window-mounted feeder. Casement windows make this easy as do tilt-in (for cleaning) windows. Or, you may be able to reach the window from an adjoining window, the deck, porch or the ground. Finally, don’t forget you will have to remove the window screen if one is installed.
Tell us in the comments section if you have tried feeding or training bluebirds. I will post again soon about building, or buying, and mounting bluebird houses.
