Yesterday morning brought a mystery I never expected. I walked onto my deck at sunrise and saw the male Eastern Bluebird acting very strange at the birdhouse. He kept going in and out of the entrance where the Eastern Bluebird chicks had been just the day before.
Something was clearly wrong. The male had no food in his beak. I didn’t see the female anywhere. This worried me because both parents had been actively feeding their second brood since June 20, when I wrote about bluebirds feeding young on the first day of summer.
The Empty Nest Discovery
I don’t like checking inside active birdhouses, but the male’s behavior told me something was seriously wrong. When I looked inside, my heart sank. The nest was completely empty.
The Eastern Bluebird chicks had vanished without a trace. No signs of struggle. No clues about what happened. The female was nowhere to be seen either.
The male wouldn’t leave the birdhouse. He perched on top and flew to the entrance every few seconds to look inside. Watching his distress was heartbreaking.
A Grieving Father’s Actions
After an hour of watching the male’s desperate search, I decided to clean out the empty nest. The male stayed close the entire time. After I finished, he actually went inside and brought out small bits of nesting material I had missed.
This male has always been different from other Eastern Bluebird males in my yard. I wrote about his aggressive behavior when he first joined the nesting effort. His dedication to the empty nest box showed that same intense nature.
An Unexpected Turn
Then something even stranger happened. A female Eastern Bluebird flew to the birdhouse and looked inside several times. Two juvenile bluebirds landed nearby right after she arrived. They looked old enough to be from the first brood this season.
The young birds left after just a few minutes. The female stayed near the birdhouse. I watched the male bring her food and feed it to her. Then I saw him carrying small amounts of nesting material in his beak.
Starting Over Again
The male seemed to be encouraging the female to build another nest. This behavior continued most of the morning. It appears the female will start building again despite the tragedy.
I have no idea what happened to those newly hatched Eastern Bluebird chicks. Since they hatched, I had been sitting on my deck every day watching both parents bring them food. Whatever took them must have happened during the night.
The mystery remains unsolved, but life goes on in my backyard. I’ll keep watching to see if this pair tries again with a third brood.
Just had the same happen with a nest of ring-necked doves. I can see them from my office window, and had been watching them every day. I didn’t realize the two eggs had hatched [I thought I was still seeing the back of the male dove each day] until I found one of the parents in the yard, looking distressed. When I approached, I flushed a small hawk from, of all places, the door handle of my shed. It lodged one chick there, and the other was on the ground. They were both dispatched and slightly consumed. My heart sank to the bottom of the ocean. I anticipated picking them off the ground and taking them to a rehab since the nest was so tiny, but never that…uff. [Had me thinking though, do other species cheer us on when we are raising our young?]
I love reading the stories but it’s hard to process the “tragedy”. Nature in all of her beauty is very harsh and it truly is survival of the fittest (or quickest). Best wishes for a new brood.