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Every day the pair of Eastern Bluebirds living in our backyard have to find food for their babies, which could be fledging in a week or so. Fortunately, our neighborhood has many spots, including lawns, an empty lot and a wooded area, where they can easily find food. The female is the one that works the hardest, with the male relishing his role as her protector against other birds and even a photographer!

Male Bluebird arriving with butterfly (or moth) as food.
Female Bluebird with a worm.
Female Bluebird bringing spider for food.
Female Bluebird flying out of nest.

Sometimes they take a break and watch their nest from the top of our birdfeeder hanging pole.

Eastern Bluebird couple watching their birdhouse.

One essential function of both parents is to keep the nest clean by taking out the fecal sacs they pull out of their young ones several times a day.

Male Bluebird with a spider.
Male Blurbird feeding their babies.
Male Bluebird going inside nest.
Male Bluebird flying out holding a fecal sac. He will drop it somewhere far away from the nest.

The female also does that type of diaper duty. In fact, she carries out more fecal sacs than he does! On the other hand, he spends a lot of time keeping other birds clear of their birdhouse. Yesterday I watched as he repeatedly attacked the Bluebird he saw in the driver side mirror of a car parked on our driveway. At times, the noise that he made pecking at his image in the mirror sounded like a mini machine gun. This morning we put a bag over the mirror to put a stop to that.

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