[Bluebird-babble] Thinking Outside the Box

[Christina.Mitchell at UCHSC.edu]

Hi, Rebecca--
 
We had 2 different Mountain Bluebird females doing this at our house this year as well as an Ash-throated Flycatcher.  I believe it's an aggression behavior--thinking she was seeing another female horning in on her territory--which female bluebirds are known to exhibit.  (In most species, this behavior occurs primarily with males.)  Ours eventually stopped (we assume) once they got busy with egg-laying and other aspects of kid-rearing.  It was a tad unnerving, though, because one of them got pretty vehement at times.  I was afraid she might hurt herself, but she never did.
 
Tina Mitchell
Lakewood/Coaldale, CO

________________________________

From: bluebird-babble-bounces at denveraudubon.org on behalf of rebecca heisler
Sent: Mon 9/17/2007 3:26 PM
To: Listserv of the Colorado Bluebird Project
Subject: Re: [Bluebird-babble] Thinking Outside the Box



Hi Kevin,

I had a pair of bluebirds that appeared to be trying to nest in my house.  For weeks the female would jump up from a window ledge and peck at the glass repeatedly as if trying to get in (?).  I think they finally found one of my nest boxes, but, it may have been the one had that 4 eggs in it that were abandoned.  Anyway, have you heard of anything like this before?

thanks,

rebecca 




	-----Original Message----- 
	From: CBPKevin at aol.com 
	Sent: Aug 21, 2007 8:19 PM 
	To: Bluebird-Babble at DenverAudubon.org 
	Subject: [Bluebird-babble] Thinking Outside the Box 
	
	
	...is the title of an article in the Summer 2007 issue of Cornell's 'Living Bird' magazine.  The subject of the article is a pair of Mountain Bluebirds in Oregon who used an old American Robin's nest in a juniper tree to raise their family in 2006.  The article is accompanied by several excellent photographs that clearly show the nest site did not resemble a cavity in any way.  Four young were raised and fledged.
	 
	   The only other documented instance of Mountain Bluebirds using an open nest that the author could find  was recorded in Wyoming in 1932, when a pair used an abandoned robin's nest in a cottonwood tree.
	 
	   Another fine example of the fact that the birds don't read the books we write about their behavior.
	 
	Kevin Corwin
	Centennial



	
________________________________

	Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com <http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000982> .

________________________________________
PeoplePC Online
A better way to Internet
http://www.peoplepc.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://denveraudubon.org/pipermail/bluebird-babble_denveraudubon.org/attachments/20070917/284faa75/attachment-0001.html