Nest Box Surprises

Tammy Brown

Newly hatched Eastern Bluebirds

 

When I checked Box 2 by Dragonfly Pond today, I found two tiny baby bluebirds nestled together with three unhatched eggs .  I’ve never seen baby birds this young before, all pink and blue with little wispy beginnings of feathers on their heads.  If you zoom in you can see the the little feathers and a tiny foot.  So sweet!

 

just hatched Eastern Bluebirds
Baby Eastern Bluebirds

 

White Bluebird Eggs?

 

In Box 7 I was surprised to find 4 white eggs.  I had seen Eastern Bluebirds at the nest box earlier in the week but these were not blue eggs.  They weren’t speckle like chickadee eggs, either.  Puzzled I went back to my bluebird book and the internet.  I learned that 4-5% of bluebird eggs are white.  The lack of pigmentation is  thought to be genetic, and the babies are normal and healthy.

 

Uncommon white Eastern Bluebird eggs
White Eastern Bluebird eggs.

 

I see lots of bluebirds at Little Piney this summer and hear their songs all around me.    Next spring I will add two more nest boxes in hopes of having even more.  There can never be too many bluebirds at Little Piney with their brilliant blue flashes of color and sweet songs.

 

 

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Eastern Bluebird
Young Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Bluebird Juvenile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White eggs of a different kind

I saw some other eggs today by the lake today.  Leathery white strips  curled around themselves and left near a hole in the sandy ground.  No little ones in sight, but I’m sure we have baby turtles at Little Piney, too.

3 Comments

  1. I can’t tell what I’m looking at in that baby bluebird picture! But how cool!! I wish we could be out there to see that!

    1. Me too! The back of his little fuzzy head is at the top. You see the wing and right by the egg is a little foot.