Hi May. Am I reading this right one egg in the box yesterday and a second today? You must have a second pair. Lucky you. It is common for a pair to start a nest and not lay for a while though 3 weeks is a bit long. Please go to this website to be sure you have protected your Blues the best you can...IT is IMPORTANT!www.sialis.org I saw your pics on your other post. Where are you? I was in Co Springs for 12 years and miss my mountains so much. I had not started birding yet, I was into rockhounding when I was there so sadly I missed all the birds in the mountains as I was always looking DOWN. I look forward to getting back there some day and seeing all the birds I missed.

Hi Lisa:
I am in Larkspur, a small town sort of in between Denver and Colorado Springs, lots of tall Ponderosa and Spruce, very pretty, lots of birds as well, also mountain lions and bears.
I see that you are now in MI, lots of acres, lakes, sounds very nice!

I was probably rambling in my post, I am now sure that it is the 2nd pair that built the nest and the took 4 weeks to lay one egg. Now I think that the female is incubating! For 2 mornings in a row I found her in the box and wouldn't move when I opened it. Have you ever seen incubation of only one egg?

BTW, I go to sialis.org reguarly, lots of very good information.

Box in the backyard where 5 babies fledged 2 days ago:

Box in the frontyard where the nest was build 4 weeks ago, the female is incubating:

That one egg:

The incubating female:

That looks an awful lot like a swallow from that angle...she is so dark! Are there feathers in the nest? It must be the male....But that is definitely a bluebird nest unless a swallow took it over...LOL!

That really does look like a swallow. Swallows are known for not budging while incubating, too. Also, the egg is white... usually bluebird eggs are blue (atleast around here), however I know they sometimes can be white. TRES eggs are usually white. It sure does look like a bluebird NEST though. To me, that looks like a swallow incubating a swallow egg in a bluebird nest? If you ever get dive-bombed by them when you're around the box, coupled with gurgling/loud cackling, then it is definitely a swallow.

She is definitely a bluebird, the egg actually looks blue as well. The lighting of these photos is kind of distorting. I have seen her and the male blue pertty close. They don't dive bomb when I am around the box :-)

She is continuing to incubate that one egg, and male is around also. I put out the mealies for several days, don't think that they have discovered it, but the Robins did :-)

I am hoping that the "only child" will hatch ...

That's very interesting, maybe the reason for 1 egg in four weeks was because it was a young female, they sometimes take longer to lay according to the sialis website. I wish my blues would let me get that close to them, ha.

What I do to get my blues to notice the mealies is put a small dish of them right by the nest box, and then move it a little further away with each day they eat from it. You can put a dish of them on a common perch where you see them. Sometimes it isn't a good idea to have the mealies right next to the box as it can draw bully birds. Good luck with the lone egg, that baby will be spoiled rotten, ha.

Well I think it looks like a bluebird. Are these Moutain Bluebirds or Eastern? Kinda looks like a female Mountain Bluebird. There is alot of blood on that egg and yes I can see it is blue, just the lighting and the camera making it look more white. Sure hope she is ok since she only laid the one egg. Good luck with the "only child" and good luck getting them to find the mealies. This year was my easiest year in training the pair of Blue to the mealworms.

Donna