I have been living with bluebirds for over 30 years. I had never seen a bluebird in our yard until a pair first came to our water bowl. Bluebirds love water and that’s the first way to attract them. The next spring we had a small pottery-type bird house hanging on an old clothesline pole (yes, it was that many years ago.) One day, I noticed a bird with brilliant blue plumage going in and out of the small hole. The bluebirds had built their first nest. The next year, I put up a traditional bluebird house (the second way to attract bluebirds) and they have nested in my yard every spring since then. I now offer them three houses to choose from, and they pick different ones each year. With bluebirds, you never know.
They also hang around our yard year-round and that’s because I feed them sunflower hearts and chips, the third way to draw bluebirds. The pre-husked seeds are the only ones they can eat since they lack beaks (like a cardinal) that can open seeds. In the spring, when they nest, I feed them live meal worms (the 4th way to attract these friendly little birds.) Bluebirds don’t eat dried meal worms, by the way. They may peck around the dried worms in a suet cake, but they don’t eat them, Buying dried meal worms is a waste of money.
I have enjoyed close, personal encounters with my “blues” over the years, but each pair is different. Sometimes they nest twice in a summer, sometimes three. They average 4 to 6 eggs but the most live chicks I’ve seen leave the nest is four. Sometimes then hen is reluctant to fly in and feed on the meal worms I toss with a few feet of my chair on the patio, but sometimes it’s the males who are a little skitzy. Eventually, though, they come to know and trust you and when they see you, they fly quickly to their favorite limb or perch and hope you deliver the goodies (meal worms).
I but lots of meal worms. I bought 13,000 this spring from Fluker Farms, But they’re not terribly expensive, maybe a hundred bucks for the lot and the return on your money is enormous, When you have a beautiful creature like a bluebird hop to within a yard from where you sit, pick up a beak full of worms and chirp to thank you. It’s worth every penny.
To reiterate, if you want to draw blue birds, give them a fresh source of water, a house in which to nest, sunflower hearts for food throughout the year and live meal worms when they nest.
