A Buzz About Bluebirds: Call It a Comeback
A Buzz about Bluebirds: Call It A Comeback was originally published in the BFEC newsletter, Vol. 11/No. 2, Spring 2007.
We talk a lot about bluebirds at the Brown Family Environmental Center. The reason the birds draw our attention, and that of bluebird societies across the nation, may be a combination of their brilliant blue color, a love of what is rare and a good comeback story.
Bluebird populations plummeted in the early 1900’s due in part to competition from aggressive, imported species like the European starling and English house sparrow. Both were introduced by European settlers in the 1800’s and take over the cavity nesting habitats that blue birds require.
Loss of habitat also contributed to the bluebird’s decline a century ago, and continues to present a threat. Current issues include the replacement of wood fence posts with metal posts, a transition from small to expansive farm fields, and the spread of urban and suburban areas.
The efforts of local conservationists to establish nesting boxes have assisted in the bird’s recovery. The BFEC held its annual Bluebird Workshop in March in partnership with the Ohio Bluebird Society, with the help of Mel Bolt, Dale Glass and many volunteers. Local residents were invited to build specially designed bluebird nesting boxes and learn about proper sighting and monitoring to help ensure the success of nesting pairs.
The Bluebird Nesting Trail
The Brown Family Environmental Center also established a “bluebird trail,” or series of nesting boxes, in 1999 to promote education, research and recovery of the species.
The BFEC now has 38 nesting boxes with the recent addition of 13 new units surrounding the pasture north of State Route 229. The new boxes take advantage of our new trail between the Miller Observatory and the Bishop’s Backbone forest, and they are located in ideal habitat for the ground-feeding bluebirds. Living next to a hiking trail appears to be fine with the bluebirds — for many years our most successful nests have been in the heavily-used trail through the BFEC prairie.
Students Research in Breeding Ecology
Kenyon students have been studying the breeding ecology of bluebirds since the summer of 2000. In addition to monitoring the success of the nesting box program, we are learning much about the influence of predators and parasites (and the benefits of controlling these negative interactions).
Students have discovered that some nests produce a majority of male offspring, while more females are seen among nestlings for other bird families. This apparently is not just due to chance, as the skew in sex ratio can be predicted by ecological and evolutionary theory.
To scientifically test these predictions, students evaluate all the offspring and parents for body weight and bone structure. For their participation in the study, all the BFEC bluebirds are awarded shiny, aluminum bands (numbered for future reference). Also, by examining bands on returning birds we can follow the success of individuals through our long-term study.