Baby Bluebird Cuisine

There are small, hungry babies in our yard, and so there are also busy parents.  And, there are fewer and fewer bugs! 

If you are squeamish about seeing the insides of a caterpillar-- I'll warn you now, you may not want to continue reading!

On June 6th, I started noticing our bluebirds taking food to their house.

From winged insects to caterpillars, they've been keeping the food coming since then.

Mr. Bluebird doesn't seem to mind me watching, though he does keep his eye on me.  The mother is much more shy, and if I'm outside, I rarely see her taking food to the babies.  So I'm careful not to bother them for any length of time.

Luckily, I can also see them without bothering them at all, by watching from our bedroom window.  This morning I happened to look out and see Mr. Bluebird with a dragonfly to feed the youngsters.

It would have been interesting to see that get eaten!  I have no idea if each baby would get a piece or if one baby got to eat the whole thing.  I've taken a quick peek inside the box, and it looks like there are three babies.  This is them on the 8th:

The bluebirds have been making good use of our garden and lawn to catch their meals.  They also frequently use the tops of the fence posts to do food prep.  Next is a series of photos showing Mr. Bluebird doing just that.  (Now would be the place to stop looking if you have an easily upset stomach!)