Bringing Back the Bluebirds
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| Brett never knows what he will find when he opens a bluebird box. Sometimes a sparrow will dart out, straight at his head. Here, he is cleaning out an old, abandoned nest. |
I am a steward for a bluebird habitat. I help protect and promote the eastern bluebird population on Long Island.
I never imagined that I would be involved with bluebirds; however, sometimes our own curiosity can take us in unexpected directions. It began about four years ago, when I was 12. On Sunday afternoons, my dad and I would go on “adventures.” We explored the wood, fields, and shoreline around our town.
One day we noticed several plain wooden birdhouses attached to poles. I was curious about them, and my dad took me to our local Nature Conservancy to find out more about them. We were told that the Conservancy had placed the boxes on the trails to help bluebirds. Why did bluebirds need help? I wondered, and I did some research on my own.
I found out that New York State had placed bluebirds on its list of “Birds of Special Concern” because the bluebird population had greatly declined in the area in recent years. The decline in the population was due to an increase in land clearing to make way for houses, shopping centers, office buildings, and highways. The bluebirds had simply lost a lot of their natural habitat, especially the cavities in trees and fence posts where they build their nests.
Making things even worse were English sparrows and European starlings. These non-native birds are aggressive, and the bluebird had to compete with them for the few nesting cavities that remained.
This information was upsetting. The bluebird is our state bird. I couldn’t believe its survival in our region was in danger. However, I was glad that the Nature Conservancy was working to bring it back.
My dad and I went back to the Conservancy. I found out that the boxes we had seen were designed specifically for bluebirds—from the type of wood to the size of the hole. The boxes needed to be maintained and monitored. It was then that I decided to become an official volunteer.
The Nature Conservancy trained me, and for the past four years I have been monitoring bluebirds weekly. I repair and maintain all of the 34 bluebird boxes, remove nests of invading birds, erect perches, and record nesting data.
I love this work. It is a thrill in
late spring and early summer to visit a nest and discover the small
blue eggs of a bluebird. The next visit is even more exciting. The
eggs have hatched, and three to five tiny nestlings are chirping away. Then
I know my hard work has paid off!
Happily, the bluebird population at the preserve is growing. Last year, I counted 12 fledglings. This is a significant number. There were no bluebirds at the preserve five years ago.
It is so rewarding now to see bluebirds flying around the fields and wood, and I have seen how strikingly pretty they are. It’s also great to hear their distinct, high trilling song as I hike along the trail.
I have always been an outdoor person and especially love hiking in the wood. It gives me a lot of joy to know that through this stewardship, I’m helping nature in a small but important way.
Build a bluebird box! Click here for instructions.
