![]() ![]() This charismatic bird has long been valued by farmers as a tenant with a healthy compulsion for vacuuming up pests. In fact, since the bird’s summer diet consists largely of insects gleaned from the ground, the nestbox may simply be the best vantage-point from which to hunt. ![]() This dedication, as well as its approachability, have long endeared the bluebird to his human admirers. And perhaps its habit of perching atop the box reminds us of a loyal sentry posted on his turret. Both father and mother are devoted parents, sometimes making more than a dozen trips each hour back and forth to the nest to feed their young. For one thing, the cavities it chooses are often just 4 to 6 feet off the ground-right at our eye-level. ![]() ![]() While for most birds, a nest is rarely more than a place to lay their eggs, the bluebird’s domesticity seems more than a little human. Ready to house-hunt with the bluebird? Sporting an orange bib and “carrying the sky on his back” (Thoreau again), the bluebird appears beside a nestbox or a woodpecker hole, inspecting inside, outside, above and below, or taking a perch nearby and singing a little song, as though testing the acoustics. ![]()
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