Eastern Bluebird LIVE Cam:

2024 Nesting Notes: (Brood #1)

1st Brood of 2024
02/10/2024, Waiting for any activity.

Bluebird Notes ~ Past Nesting Seasons

LIVE Eastern Bluebird nest box. Meet Rosie and Blue as they raise their baby bluebirds. Just outside of Chattanooga, TN. We have been watching and enjoying Rosie and Blue for over 8+ years now. They have raised quite a few broods and they are in the area year round. The blues stick around together as a family unit and are such fun to watch.

When it is not Eastern Bluebird nesting season, we have our live cam on our platform bird feeder. It is 15 feet in the air and squirrel proof. After dark the live cam roams the yard and woods for things with glowing eyes. A flying white image just could be Mr. Bat. More infomation below.

Eastern Bluebird: Rosie and Blue are Bluebirds that have been nesting in our yard out by the pond for 7+ years now. We wanted to add a nest cam to see what was going on, but the nest box was too far away. We added a new nesting box in the front, equipped with the new cam and waited, hoping that it was not too late in the season. What a blessing it was to find pine needles in the box only a few days after the new box was put up!

Eastern bluebirds are very social birds. However, they are territorial during the breeding season and may continue to defend a feeding area throughout the winter. Mating occurs in the spring and summer. A mature female typically raises two broods each season. Nests are constructed in trees within abandoned woodpecker holes or other cavities that provide adequate protection (usually several feet above ground). Construction of the nest is done primarily by the female and takes around 10 days to complete. These nests are small, cup-like structures lined with grass, feathers, stems, and hairs. Each female lays three to seven light-blue or, rarely, white eggs. The female incubates the eggs, which hatch after 13 to 16 days. The young cannot care for themselves upon hatching. The female broods the chicks for up to seven days after hatching. Fledglings then leave the nest 15 to 20 days after hatching.

Both parents cooperate in raising the young, which they feed a diet consisting almost entirely of insects. Some young stay around the nest to help raise another brood. Fledglings are grayish in color, with speckled breasts. The blue color becomes much more prominent and the speckles on their breasts disappear as they mature. Bluebirds may begin breeding the summer after they are hatched.

Eastern bluebirds tend to live in open country around trees, but with little understory and sparse ground cover. Original habitats probably included open, frequently burned pine savannas, beaver ponds, mature but open woods, and forest openings. Today, they�re most common along pastures, agricultural fields, suburban parks, backyards, and even golf courses. This bird also occurs across eastern North America and south as far as Nicaragua. Birds that live farther north and in the west of the range tend to lay more eggs than eastern and southern birds.

Bird House: Our Eastern Bluebird nesting box is a Gilbertson PVC & cedar bird house. We had such a problem with mites living in the wood of the old house, so we are giving this bird house a try. Very easy to mount, and very easy for us to add a housing for the bird cam, so we have some space between cam and nesting materials. The PVC house body is a relatively shallow design make it less attractive to the invasive, non-native house sparrows.


Nest Cam: Our "HawkEye" nest cam is mounted at the top of nesting box, looking straight down, and front of box = birds enter at top of screen side.










Our IP Camera: We are using an Speed Dome IP Camera "Dome-Inator" - x27 Optical Zoom, 12 Array LEDs, H.264 Video Compression, Motion Detection. For now, we have it on a tripod stand so we can move it around for the best bird feeding viewing. All of our feeder are made from recycled items.




Our Seed Feeder: You will see our seed feeder when it is NOT nesting season. This is a feeders on a top of a 15 foot flag pole. This way the squirrels do not climb up it and eat all the bird seed. There is a stove pipe baffle at the bottom of the pole, to keep them off. On the menu are: black sunflower seeds, home made suit and Nyjer seed which the finches enjoy.


Mealworm Feeder: Bluebirds, Titmouse, Chickadee and Wren's will fit through the mealworm feeder to get to the worms. This type of feeder keeps out the big birds. This allows the small birds to eat in peace.


Bat House: 4 years ago, we added a bat house. The first year we didn't have any takers. The second year we had 24 bats. The third year we counted 36 bats. They migrate during the winter to the South. They should return in April when the weather warms up a bit. They leave the bat house at dusk or early dusk. At night we do zoom out and you will see them leaving the house and flying around at night. They are quick and very, very fast. They are a pleasure to watch. We only use a bat house approved by the Organization for Bat Conservation We did have to wrap the bat house with wire to keep the woodpeckers from making holes in the house.