This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This site is dedicated to wildlife and landscape photography.
This is the female of the pair of western bluebirds nesting in one of our bird boxes. She has a habit of flying to our windows and those of our neighbor. Sometimes she bumps into the window with her breast and other times stops just short of hitting the window. I understand it’s a territorial thing, in that she sees her reflection and thinks it’s a rival. She does this many, many times each day. I’m wondering if she will ever realize it’s not another bird.
This is the female of the pair of western bluebirds nesting in one of our bird boxes. She has a habit of flying to our windows and those of our neighbor. She stops just short of hitting the windows, but she repeats this oddity numerous times throughout the day.
For several years now we’ve been fortunate to have a pair of western bluebirds use one of the nest boxes in our backyard. The female this year has a strange habit. She constantly flies into windows at our house and our neighbor’s house. She doesn’t injure herself, it’s more of a bump with her breast and then she will drop down to the small sill at the bottom of the window and then repeat the process over and over. It may be that she sees her reflection and is maybe trying to scare away what she thinks is a rival. I don’t know if this is right. That’s what I get when I google the question. Has anyone else seen a bluebird do this? Does anyone have a different theory for why?
Male Western Bluebird
We have bluebirds and oak titmice nesting in our backyard now. It used to be tree swallows and titmice, but the bluebirds have gotten to the nest box first this year and last year. The early bird gets the worm or, in this case, the nest.
Hungry Bluebird
When I decided to publish this photo, it immediately reminded me of a fellow by the name of Michael L. Smith who I knew when I lived in the D.C. area. We were part of a wildlife photography club that met each month at a local Audubon Society building in the Maryland suburbs. Michael became very wealthy from a single image he took of a male Eastern Bluebird that looked like it was scowling or angry. As luck would have it, Michael sold over 116,000 copies of that photo. That in itself may be a record. Here is a link to Michael’s story.
The bluebird in my photo doesn’t look angry so much as impatient. When this male and his mate used a nest box in our backyard I started feeding them mealworms which, as bluebird lovers know, is a good way to attract bluebirds. I think in this photo he was getting tired of waiting for me to put some mealworms in the feeder.
Male Western Bluebird
“I’m Outta Here”!
They’re gone, but remain nearby. The parents still return morning, noon and night for mealworms. I don’t know how long that will last, but I understand the parents sometimes have a second brood. We’ll see. It was fun while it lasted.
