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The eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) is a small North American migratory thrush found in open woodlands, farmlands, and orchards. The bright-blue breeding plumage of the male, easily observed on a wire or open perch, makes this species a favorite of birders.
Volunteers at Maybury State Park keep an eye on bluebird nesting boxes, watching for predators, counting eggs and fledglings.
Adult female in Livermore, California. The western bluebird is a small stocky bird with a length of 15 to 18 cm (5.9 to 7.1 in). The adult male is bright blue on top and on the throat with an orange breast and sides, a brownish patch on back, and a gray belly and undertail coverts.
The bluebirds are a North American [1] group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus Sialia of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. Bluebirds lay an average of 4 to 6 eggs per clutch. They will usually brood two or three times in a year.
A male eastern bluebird clings to the opening of the pair's chosen nest box. Bluebirds have two or three nestings per year so do not give up trying to attract them.
The key for a bluebird nest box is to have the hole be exactly 1.5 inches in diameter. Too large of a hole invites starlings and makes it easier for squirrels and other larger rodents to get in.
The nest is preferentially built at a height in the trees of 3 to 10 m (10 to 33 ft). It is cup-shaped and composed of twigs, small roots, bark strips, moss, other plant material, cloth, paper, and feathers, with occasional mud added to the cup. Blue jays are not very picky about nesting locations.
Mountain Bluebird is a U.S.-Canada Stewardship species, and is not on the 2014 State of the Birds Watch List. These bluebirds benefited from the westward spread of logging and grazing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the clearing of forest created open habitat for foraging.