Thurston's Birds

Western Bluebirds

Old-timers called them 'Blue Robins'

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There are three fairly common blue birds in our county, Steller’s Jays, Scrub-Jays, and Western Bluebirds. This week we’re focusing on the Western Bluebirds, which are smaller and the least well-known of the three.

Western Bluebirds were once much more common here than they are today. Old-timers in the Yelm area called them “Blue Robins,” the first bird to return in spring, sometimes as early as mid-February. (Robins spend the entire winter here. Since they don’t “return,” in our area, they cannot fulfill their traditional role as the first bird of spring).

Bluebirds are thrushes, looking like a robin in general shape but much smaller. There are three species of them in North America: the Eastern, Mountain and Western. The Western male has a blue head, wings and back that contrasts with his grey belly and orange sides. In good light, a male with fresh plumage is really a stunning site. Females are much more faintly bluish grey. They are birds of our open prairies and oak woodlands where pairs will establish nesting territories.

Western Bluebirds do have a song, but it’s only sung in the early morning and thus seldom heard. However, they frequently call to each other all day, so hearing light “few, few” notes lets you know that bluebirds are about. After fledging, the adults with their young form a small flock, more or less constantly calling as they move around seeking food.

They are primarily insect eaters, sitting on open perches looking for prey and then flying to the ground to make their kill. In summer they feast on grasshoppers and the like. They also eat fruit and ripening berries.

Bluebirds nest in cavities, holes carved by woodpeckers and rotten places in snags. Two invasive bird species, House Sparrows and European Starlings, are also cavity nesters and by the 1950’s they were outcompeting all the bluebird species for nesting sites across North America.

In response, activists started making and putting up handmade wood boxes, thus creating more nesting cavities. Bluebirds, and other cavity-nesting species as well, respond well to boxes.

Some long-time county residents and conservationists may remember Jack Davis. In the early 1980’s, Jack was putting up bluebird boxes here and there in the county, but with no success. Knowing I worked for the Nisqually Tribe and sometimes had access to Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis McChord), Jack asked if I might be willing to take a few of his bluebird boxes onto the fort’s prairie areas. (Getting onto Fort Lewis was easier to those pre-9/11 days).

In a Fort Lewis biological survey in the late 1970’s, Western Bluebird was listed as “probably present,” but no birds were actually found. Well, a few bluebird pairs found and used the Jack Davis boxes I put up, and this received some notice. Within a few years the project went from being informal and low-key to an organized and formally recognized Fort Lewis activity. Somehow or other, I ended up being the person who ended up running the project.

The project provided multiple bird boxes of a standard design, and I was allowed access to all areas of Fort Lewis, including (with an escort) into inaccessible places like the back side of the artillery impact area. Weekends and after work hours were devoted to tending the boxes. Fort Lewis is a big place, with lots of good prairie and oak woodland habitat, and by the late 1980’s I had put up some 400 boxes, spread out across the fort’s open areas in both Pierce and Thurston counties. Many of those boxes are still there, as are the bluebirds, but not me – I retired from the project long ago.

However, it’s certainly fair to say that the JBLM bluebird project was, and continues to be, a smashing success. Western Bluebirds are no longer rare. They have spread widely beyond JBLM boundaries and, in fact, any property with open space and a few oak trees can put up a box and has a reasonable chance of attracting nesting bluebirds.

George Walter is the environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural resources department; he also has a 40+ year interest in bird watching. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com

Photos for this column are provided by Liam Hutcheson, a 14-year-old Olympia area birder and avid photographer.

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