Date: 11/21/25 9:48 am From: Michael Cavanaugh via groups.io <michaelcav...> Subject: [labird] Bluebird winter behavior
Friends, We've only had bluebirds in our yard a few years, but of course we love them. They have nested in the box we built for them for the last 3 years.
But this year they exhibit some behavior I am curious about. After fledging they disappeared for a month or so (probably they were feeding with other bluebirds we saw in a large mowed field nearby), but then they started coming back. It may be anthropologizing them, but it SEEMS they are checking on their nest-box. Anytime a large collection of birds appears (for example when our watering system is on), the bluebirds appear too, and drive off anyone who lands on their nest-box just as if it were nesting season. From my reading in ethology, I suspect this is an "innate releasing mechanism" that is an independent variable from actual nesting behavior. See rival on box = attack rival on box. But I'd love to have this suspicion challenged, and the real reason explained. Even if the real dynamic is my projection of what I'm seeing onto a template that can't be supported scientifically. Yours,
Michael Cavanaugha mile and a half south of LSU
