First Flight

 

A male bluebird approached his nest box. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

Yesterday we found ourselves back on the bluebird trail in Prairie, Idaho. This time we weren’t out with the Bluebird Man and were just focused on capturing the bluebirds daily routine. We had two goals in mind: to film parent bluebirds bringing food to the nest box and to attempt filming inside a box. We accomplished both those goals, and in addition captured a family of Mountain Bluebirds fledging! An excellent bonus.

Mama bluebird removing a fecal sac from her nest box. Photograph by Neil Paprocki. Papa bluebird bringing home the bacon, er….insect. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

Bluebird parents are very diligent workers when they have chicks to feed. All morning long I watched as the male and female Mountain Bluebird brought food back and forth to the nest box for their hungry chicks. As I watched, I noticed the bluebird nestlings poking their heads out of the nest box opening to glimpse the outside world they will have to survive in. Many of them won’t make it through their first year of life.

Bluebird nestling peering out of a nest box. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

As the morning progressed, the parents would take turns calling from outside the box with food in their beaks, trying to entice the young bluebirds outside. And then it happened! A chick struggled into the nest box opening before making the awkward leap into the outside world for the first time: fledging! As soon as the first chick went, the other two were not far behind and within two minutes all three birds had left the box. I can only imagine what the outside world seems like to them after spending their whole lives (18-19 days) inside a dark box.

Proud papa of a fully fledged bluebird family. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.