Bluebirds

Discussion in 'Pets & Critters' started by Allie Seay, Apr 14, 2015.

  1. Allie Seay

    Allie Seay Veteran Member
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    A little while back I posted a thread about the arrival of the hummingbirds in my area, and now the bluebirds have shown up as well. And in greater numbers than I think I've ever seen them.

    The crazy thing is they keep hitting our windows. Smack! And perching on them, too, as well as they can. On all sides of the house. Ken said he saw at least six of them at one time clinging to one of the garage door windows a day or so ago.

    They act like they want to come right into the house. We've always had an abundance of bluebirds, which are among my favorites, but we've never had them like this and we cannot figure out what in the world it is that they want.

    Unless it's to tell us that the squirrels have taken all of their houses and Ken needs to get busy building more.
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It might be because it is mating season and they see themselves reflected in the window, and think that they can fly right in where they see the "other bluebird".
    I remember once that there was a bird that just kept attacking the rear view mirror on the outside of my pickup. He would see himself in the mirror and then fly right into the mirror, and of course, he also crash-landed every time he tried to do that.

    We used to have an Arabian stallion named Raffix (Serafix and Abu Farwa bloodlines, Allie) and he would go around to the back porch of our little house and see himself in the back window.
    Then would commence the flirting and nickering. When that didn't work, then he would challenge the horse in the window, rear up, ears pinned back, and bellow at himself.
    When that didn't work either, he would next go around and peer inside the porch door, and ---- no horse in there. He was always SO perplexed as to where that other horse actually was.
    We had him in the yard a lot, and we would see Raffix "on patrol", going around the house and peering in the windows looking for that horse.
     
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  3. Susan Long

    Susan Long Veteran Member
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    Bluebirds absolutely fascinate me! The blue hues on their feathers are quite amazing. So, when I see a bluebird, I am an instant observer of their every move!
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I don't know how well cats differentiate between types of birds but they can tell the difference. I have a bird feeder outside a second-floor window to give the cats something to look at. Every morning, we have a flock of chickadees there, and Ellas has grown bored with them. Rather than watching them, she will either walk away uninterested, or she will rush the window to startle them, so that she can watch them fly away. She's bored with the squirrels much of the time now too. But whenever a new bird appears, she is fascinated and in full predator mode. We had a cardinal there this afternoon, and she was oblivious to anything but that bird. So far, I haven't seen any bluebirds yet.
     
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  5. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    I haven't seen any blue birds in my area only the red breasted robins, lots of them looking for food.
     
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  6. Allie Seay

    Allie Seay Veteran Member
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    Yvonne, we used to have the most beautiful leopard appaloosa. He wasn't just freckled all over. He was white with black fist sized spots all over (one was heart shaped). He looked like he was wearing pajamas to me, but everywhere we went people would say, "Look! A dalmation one!."
    Anyway, I'll never forget how shocked he looked the first time he saw his own reflection in the sliding glass doors in the basement of our old house. I'm pretty sure the sight of all those spots got him at first, but then I think he realized he was seeing his own self because he recognized my reflection standing beside of him. I mean you could see the understanding like a light bulb coming on in his face. And then he just looked like, "Man! I'm fine!"
    And he was. He really was one fine looking horse.

    Ken, your bird watching cats remind me of my most favorite cat ever, long gone now. One time I was busy in my sewing room and she (Possum) came in and said something urgent to me in cat language. I spoke to her but continued to work on whatever I was working on at the time. Or at least I tried to. Possum would not leave me alone. Finally, after she batted me on the leg and took off up the hallway then came back for a repeat and another string of cat syllables I started taking her seriously.
    When she saw she had my attention she opened her eyes as wide as I'd ever seen her do and made it very clear that she wanted me to follow her up the hall. She led me all the way to the den on the other end of the house and directed my attention to the woodstove. It being summertime I had no inkling what that was about until I heard a noise in the woodstove and Possum looked at me with those wide eyes again.
    I didn't know what I was going to find but I opened the door on the stove and out flew a blackbird. Then I had a time trying to catch the blackbird without Possum getting it first. I ended up throwing a towel over it like I had a flying squirrel that had gotten into the den one time before that.
     
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  7. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    @Allie Seay that's very funny. Yes, I can almost feel the frustration that my cats are having sometimes when they are doing everything they can to communicate with me but I'm too darned stupid to understand plain feline.
     
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  8. Allie Seay

    Allie Seay Veteran Member
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    Well, as I was sitting at my kitchen table today and trying to get some items put on ebay two little bluebirds came and clung to the window again. I stopped my ebaying for a time just to observe and see if they were looking at their reflections. Truly I think they are not. Their little faces were way too close to the glass to be doing that. They are most definitely looking into the house as I had originally thought.

    I'm darned, too, if I know how they can cling for so long to the little bit of nothing they have to cling to. We have storm windows all around and it's not the ledges they're sitting on. They are actually clinging to the little strip between the upper pane of glass and the screen in the lower section.

    And both of them were males. Infact, most of the ones I've seen this year are males.

    It just seems so unusual. I can't remember another time when they have behaved the way they are doing this year.
     
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