Bluebirds Project

blue feather Photos & Movie

blue feather Altricial or precocial

blue feather Feeding

blue feather Song

blue feather Camouflage

blue feather Winter

Activities

blue feather Charting eggs ele

blue feather All about Birds ele/ms

blue feather Frayer Model Birds - doc. | pdf

blue feather Collecting data ele/ms

blue feather Compare/Contrast

blue feather Food Web

blue feather Nest Box Log ele/ms/hs

blue feather Life Cycles ele/ms

blue feather Mapping Birds ele/ms/hs

blue feather Variables ele/ms/hs

blue feather Feather Facts ms/hs

blue feather Scientific Thinking ele/ms/hs

blue feather Systems & Controls ms/hs

blue feather Science Journal Entry ms/hs

blue feather Make Puzzle ele/ms/hs

blue feather Ecology Vocabulary ms/hs

blue feather Classification ms/hs

blue feather Resources

spaceBluebird video at NGS

spaceEggs Fact Hunt

spaceBirds Book online

spaceBirds Facts Activity

spaceLearn about Nests

spaceCitizen Science Projects

spaceFields, Meadows EcoUnit

Other Nestbox residents:

spaceTree Swallows

spaceEnglish Sparrow

spaceWren

spaceWren Chicks

spaceNuthatch

spaceMice

spaceNestWatch

spaceChickadee

Main Bluebirds Project page

Bluebirds Winter Photo

One snowy Christmas morning, I had a pleasant surprise.

I planted winterberry bushes just outside my living room windows. Their bright red berries are a cheerful splash of color in winter, when much of the garden is bare.

It was snowing hard. The ground was covered with a 12 centimeter thick blanket of snow. The red berries on the bushes had attracted a small flock of cedar waxwings and bluebirds.

female bluebird with berry

Female bluebird with a winterberry

male bluebird in snow

Male Bluebird on a Winterberry bush

For two days, the small flock feasted on the berries. Bluebirds and cedar waxwings have returned each winter. In a day or so, the berry covered bushes are bare. We have observed that the birds do not eat the berries until mid to late winter. I wonder why? The bushes have also attracted early returning robins and starlings.*

I noticed that all the birds ignored the berries that fell to the ground. One cold, late spring day, I gathered the berries and placed them in a small feeder. I hung the feeder over the bare bushes. The berries were gone the next morning. Unfortunately, I missed seeing the birds take them.

 

*I shoo away the European Starlings whenever I see them. They are not native birds. They compete with bluebirds for food and nesting places.

blue feather Bird Species List for FeederWatch - make one

blue feather Biodiversity Exploration Investigation

blue feather Native Plants Garden

blue feather Mystery Bird Challenge

blue feather BirdSleuth: Investigating Evidence - free materials from Cornell University

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©2002 Cindy O'Hora All Rights Reserved, Updated 10/2008, Posted May 2002 address

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Aligned with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Science & Technology, Reading, Writing, Ecology & Environment, Mathematics