Bluebirds Project Photos & Movie Altricial or precocial Feeding Song Camouflage Winter Activities Charting eggs ele All about Birds ele/ms Frayer Model Birds - doc. | pdf Collecting data ele/ms Compare/Contrast Food Web Nest Box Log ele/ms/hs Life Cycles ele/ms Variables ele/ms/hs Feather Facts ms/hs Scientific Thinking ele/ms/hs Systems & Controls ms/hs Science Journal Entry ms/hs Make Puzzle ele/ms/hs Ecology Vocabulary ms/hs Classification ms/hs Resources Bluebird video at NGS Eggs Fact Hunt Birds Book online Birds Facts Activity Learn about Nests Citizen Science Projects Fields, Meadows EcoUnit Other Nestbox residents: Tree Swallows English Sparrow Wren Wren Chicks Nuthatch Mice NestWatch Chickadee Main Bluebirds Project page

Bluebirds Winter Photo One snowy Christmas morning, I had a pleasant surprise. I planted winterberry bushes just outside my living room windows. Their bright red berries are a cheerful splash of color in winter, when much of the garden is bare. It was snowing hard. The ground was covered with a 12 centimeter thick blanket of snow. The red berries on the bushes had attracted a small flock of cedar waxwings and bluebirds. Female bluebird with a winterberry Male Bluebird on a Winterberry bush For two days, the small flock feasted on the berries. Bluebirds and cedar waxwings have returned each winter. In a day or so, the berry covered bushes are bare. We have observed that the birds do not eat the berries until mid to late winter. I wonder why? The bushes have also attracted early returning robins and starlings.* I noticed that all the birds ignored the berries that fell to the ground. One cold, late spring day, I gathered the berries and placed them in a small feeder. I hung the feeder over the bare bushes. The berries were gone the next morning. Unfortunately, I missed seeing the birds take them.   *I shoo away the European Starlings whenever I see them. They are not native birds. They compete with bluebirds for food and nesting places. Bird Species List for FeederWatch - make one Biodiversity Exploration Investigation Native Plants Garden Mystery Bird Challenge BirdSleuth: Investigating Evidence - free materials from Cornell University

Nature / Internet Hunts / Pennsylvania Projects / Puzzles and Projects / Computers / Home / Site Map ©2002 Cindy O'Hora All Rights Reserved, Updated 10/2008, Posted May 2002 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. Aligned with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Science & Technology, Reading, Writing, Ecology & Environment, Mathematics