Hey Anita,
Maybe he's trying to get a suntan from those little Infrared LED's. Is his head though pointed toward the hole. Maybe he's got him self set up so all the parents has to do is drop the food right into his mouth without him moving, Do you think he might of been influenced by any redneck relatives.
Cheers,
Keith

Keith do you have a nestcam? Have you seen a bird do this? I guess you don't have an answer, just trying to be funny? hardee har har.

Anita

Good one, Keith...
Anita, I think I have seen them do that on very hot summer days (trying to remember).
BlueBars

Hey Anita:
I can be serious too, yes I do have a nestcam, I didn't have the nestcam set up for the first batch of the year, But have got it set up for the second batch, the mother has three eggs now, I also set up a cheap TV from Salvation Army out side my shed for the rest of those in the Trailer Park to also be able to see what's going on.

As far as your baby with it's head back, well it probably just fell asleep like that, being it is probably just a day or two old with out much muscle tone to control much of any thing.

I had a baby that was about a couple of days old, young enough that you could open the side of the bluebird box and they would still have their mouth open to any sound. Anyway got one picture where this one bluebird neck looked really bad, looked like a really big gash, I was really worried about the little bird, but they all grew up Ok and flew away Ok as far as I know, maybe some of them might end up with attention deficit disorder which some of us have, but I think they will be Ok.
As far as your baby bird goes, maybe his neck feels a little sore and the way he has it laid out is the best way for him to feel good physically, but with out much muscle tone in his neck, He probably said good enough for now, ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. I'm sure it's a one time deal and after a day or two they will all be laying still in the box looking normal, trying to play dead.

Looking forward to seeing my eggs hatch and seeing them feed with the mini camera. Right now it is on a old VCR but eventually before the eggs hatch will hope to get the DVD recorder hooked up to it to record nature at it's best.
Sincerely,
Keith

Hi Keith, au contraire, this baby is 11 days old, and is deliberately lying with his head back. I think maybe he is hot as the other babies have their mouths open a bit, too. When they are very young they don't have much strength and their heads do flop about quite a bit. But this is quite controlled. In fact, there is quite a bit of wing stretching and moving about in this nest now. It's the first time I've seen it so up close and personal so I have alot of questions. It's quite different from monitoring from the outside of the box as was my situation in the past.I hope you enjoy your babies and that all goes well..

Hey Anita,
is the BB baby laying his head straight back or to one side or the other, I wonder if you were to look inside the nest whether you would find him doing this or whether he would immediately go into hiding and playing dead routine. Maybe you could find out whether he is doing this when he doesn't feel threaten and/or he will do this also when feeling threaten.
Keith

HI Keith well most of the time they are in normal baby bird positions, upright. I think that Bluebars is right, maybe they do it to cool off, much like when a dog lies on its back when it is hot. It's neat to see them take turns stretching out their wings and grooming themselves. I'm sure if I went out and opened the box they'd not be lying on their backs! Also at this point, they don't all do the gaping as soon as the parents come into the box. That seems to be more "controlled" now, too, not as automatic as it was when they were young. The nest seems pretty small now and we wonder how they manage when there is a larger brood.