Voices and Vocabularies - Eastern Bluebirds

BirdNote^®

Eastern Bluebirds Herald Spring

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.
     [Eastern Bluebird song, repeated]
What a lovely song! The very sound of spring, a mellow burbled refrain from the edge of a meadow. [Eastern Bluebird song, repeated] A shimmer of blue against the still wintry landscape confirms our eager hope: an Eastern Bluebird has just returned north.
A male bluebird stands atop a wooden nestbox attached to a fence post. He’s an Eastern Bluebird – a small thrush – and he gleams deep blue with a rusty orange breast. [Eastern Bluebird song] The bluebird’s song – and his alert presence – assert his claim to this territory.
But an intruder, a Tree Swallow, dives toward the nestbox. With a rough chatter and raised wings, the bluebird warns the swallow away. [Eastern Bluebird chattering call]
Bluebirds rely on nestboxes. In the mid-20th Century, their numbers in the Northeast declined to the lowest level ever, due largely to nesting competition from non-native starlings and House Sparrows. Conservation groups stepped up, setting out “bluebird trails” of nestboxes built just right for these beautiful birds.
[Eastern Bluebird song]
Eastern Bluebirds have rebounded. And we can still count on them to welcome the arrival of spring.
Today’s show is brought to you by White Flower Farm: a family-owned mail-order nursery offering a wide range of perennials, annuals and shrubs for spring planting. More information is at whiteflowerfarm.com.
[Eastern Bluebird song]
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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Eastern Bluebird #85201 recorded by W.L. Hershberger.
BirdNote's theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and produced by John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2016 Tune In to Nature.org  March 2017  Narrator: Michael Stein

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