Picture reprinted courtesy of Massachusetts Wildlife

The bluebird population in the northeast is slowly recovering after losing ground in recent decades. The NRWA's Bluebird Recovery Program, initiated in 1996, is working to support and monitor bluebird nesting in our area. Volunteers in the program help by building nesting sites and monitoring the population.

How to Help

If you would like to join us in this project, please call the NRWA at 978/448-0299. We'll tell you how you can help by watching and recording the bird population in your area. We'll also send you instructions on how to build and where to locate your own bluebird house.

Bluebird Facts

The Eastern Bluebird has a rusty red breast and is 18 cm long. A young bluebird is grayish, speckle-breasted and devoid of red although it has some blue on its wings and tail. Its note is a chur-wi or tru-ly and its song is 3 or 4 soft gurgling notes.

The Eastern Bluebird is an insectivore whose habitat is open country with scattered trees, farms, and roadsides. The Eastern Bluebird can be spotted from east of the Rockies, southern Canada to the Gulf states and southeastern Arizona to Nicaragua.

Source: PETERSON FIELD GUIDES EASTERN BIRDS by Roger Tory Peterson

Recent Observations

Monitors in the past years have noted that:

• Common predators are cats and raccoons.
• Other species like wrens, house sparrows, tree swallows, and chickadees often nest in bluebird boxes.
• During the 2000 nesting season, sixteen bluebirds fledged in the 34 nesting boxes monitored by George Brouillette of Groton.

A successful bluebird house building workshop

Links
Here are some related birding sites you may want to visit:

North American Bluebird Society
  www.nabluebirdsociety.org

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
  www.birds.cornell.edu

The Virtual Birder
  www.virtualbirder.com/birder

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