I photographed this male Eastern Bluebird bringing food to the nest box in my yard here in Arkansas. I made a blog post a week or so ago (Eastern Bluebird With Large Spider) and I mentioned in this post that I have a 2 acre yard with three Bluebird nesting boxes. I have had these boxes for years and have photographed lots of Eastern Bluebirds being raised.

Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Bluebird Bringing Food To Nest Box

Here is a link to my setup for photographing the Eastern Bluebirds in my Yard: My Eastern Bluebird Photography Setup

I have one nesting box used more than the others, and I am thinking about replacing it. You can see in the photo that it’s showing its age. I keep the inside clean and as soon as the young leave the box I remove the old nest.

The thing I’m wondering is the direction I have it facing. It is facing west and what I read is that in order of preference – east, north, south and west is what they prefer. I have two nest boxes facing west and one facing east. They use the two facing west the most.

I have trees and my house in the center of my property and I have these nesting boxes next to the trees facing towards open yard. I can turn the two facing west to point toward the north or south, but they would then be facing trees on one side and yard on the other.

Safety of these birds is what I’m concerned with. You don’t want the wind blowing rain into the house or the hot sun overheating the inside.

I don’t have these birds nesting in my boxes during the hot summer and the position of these boxes maybe the reason. I may angle one to face northwest and the other southwest and see what happens.

How I Got The Shot – Eastern Bluebird

I photograph the Eastern Bluebirds from inside my vehicle which I park a distance away. This works great because they are comfortable seeing my vehicle.

I had my Canon EOS 7D Mark II camera resting on a bean bag draped over the open window of my pickup. I was using a Canon EF 100 – 400 mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens. I was shooting in aperture priority mode (AV) with a shutter speed of 1/200 of a second at f5.6 and the ISO at 1000. White Balance on auto. I was using single point, continuous auto focus with evaluative metering.