Today was the first day that Beth believed our blue bird babies could possibly fledge – or fly away. Needless to say, we are watching this very closely. We wanted to place a small camera in the back of the nest house, but didn’t quite get that far this year.

So we have a camera about 12 feet away from their front door to see if we can catch them as they take their first steps to flight. It’s a very exciting time and also a time of great danger. We’ve never had the nest box this close to the house, but so far, it’s worked out well. But we don’t actually know what happens when the babies actually take that leap of faith in their parents and try out their wings.

Blue Birds take some time choosing just the right nest box in the spring.  Both the male and female go inside, sit on top and look around - go in again, perhaps to measure for curtains, but…. This takes several days. 

Once they choose the right nest box, they build a nest that almost fills the entire box.  The top of the nest comes up to just under the bottom of the hole.

The mother lays one egg a day until all eggs are laid.  In our experience the female does not sit on the eggs all day, day in and day out but periodically. 

The eggs hatch one a day until all 3 or 4 are hatched and then the feeding begins. From laying to hatching is about 2 weeks.

The mother and father take turns feeding the babies from morning till night.  And it is another two weeks to 18 days before they fledge.