You may have all girls. The little boys have bright blue on their flight and tail feathers. The girls have blue only on the tail. Check out some of Kenn's pictures if you can find them. They show some good close-ups of male and female fledglings. I've pulled the best one "Fledglings on Deck" to the top of the list for you.

If you look carefully you should see blue feathers on the wings of the males, even when they fledge. But very little if any blue on the females. In the picture below you see a male about 2 minutes after he fledged. He jumped out a few seconds after one of his siblings did and while both parents were busy shepherding the first fledgling to a tree. With them not there to guide him, this guy flew about 10 feet, hovered for a few seconds and landed on the hand rail leading up to the deck. Here Papa is trying to get him to follow him to the tree. In the second picture you see a male on the left, a female on the right and another male partially hidden behind her. They are about 40 days old.

In this next shot Papa is feeding a female. In the following shot he is feeding a male.

Here is another male, at about 50 days old, followed by his sister, in a similar pose.

At about 60 days they will begin to lose the white specked feathers on their front. First on the side of their bellies and gradually upward to the neck. At the same time their wing and tail feathers keep growing, which on the males is predominantly blue. This one is 58 days old and the change has just started.

This female is 64 days old.

This male is 68 days old.

This male is 71 days old.

By 90 days they are nearly finished with their moult and by 100 days most of them look like adults. This male was 84 days old when these pictures were taken.

I have many more pictures that illustrate the transformation, but unfortunately, not on this computer. I hope these are sufficient.

Dave

Dave - WOW! I've dipped my toes in the fountain of Bluebird knowledge, but you've been swimming!! And with a camera. Wow!!

Thank you, Mullipuff. I do have a camera and I do take lots of pictures. At least several hundred every day, in fact. And several thousand on fledge day, which for my second clutch happens to be tomorrow.

I've been observing them every day, summer and winter, since 2004 and have taken pictures of them doing everything you could imagine and some things no one could ever imagine. I enjoy shooting them in flight the most.

I have no idea how many images I have of bluebirds; at least 100,000, I'm sure. The hardest thing is keeping them all organized.

Dave

Oh, my, Dave. Be still my heart!! When I think of the little fuzzy pics I was able to get of my grandbirds, then look at these, I'm completely blown away!!! You are a SERIOUS BB fan .. and a fantastic photographer!

I saw Ken's yesterday and now yours! Thank you both for sharing such beautiful pictures. If you ever need to see some pretty closeups of flower blooms, I'm your girl! I think I need a camera with more zoom. My flowers don't fly away when I approach .... the birdies do.

I'm beginning to think that maybe the babies I saw flitting around were not my BB babies. I know that I have a lot of house finch babies, so perhaps they were just flitting in the same area as the adult BBs. Because I've noticed that the adults grab a mouthful of the mealies then fly off with them. So I'm thinking that they have the babies deposited in a safe place. Still don't know how they all hooked up, because the parents were nowhere in sight when the babies fledged! One left the box late one afternoon about an hour before dark .. the other 4 left in mid-morning the next day. Neither time was there an adult in sight. Thanks again for the pictures and the progression of the coloring.

It would surprise me if yours are bluebirds and they all fledged without the parents being there. Bluebirds are very much into fledging. Mine are about to go today and the parents obviously know it. They have been to the nestbox every 5 minutes or so and both of them are perched in a tree where they have an unrestricted view. They buzz any bird or squirrel that comes within 25 feet of the nestbox. This is day 17 for two of them and day 16 for the other three. I have seen some peeking so I expect the two older ones are ready to get out of that hot, crowded box. I wonder if some or all of the 16 day olds will go too, or if they will sit it out overnight and go in the morning.

I am ready, either way.

You're welcome on the pictures. I actually can document every day of the metamorphosis, except for the seven days or so right after they fledge, (and there is no perceivable color change during that time period anyway).

And of course it's still approximate from a scientific point of view, since the birds do develop at different rates and my pictures are of juveniles from several different clutches. It's virtually impossible to track a single fledge all the way if it is flying free.

Papa usually runs the juveniles off before the next batch fledges but fortunately, on several occasions (usually the last nesting of the year)he hasn't.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Great photos as always, and a very nice study on distinguishing the sex of the fledglings.

I think your pair is right at 1 week ahead of ours and I know the anticipation you feel now waiting for your second brood to launch any minute. I hope you get some great shots of them all and share them with us soon.

Our first brood is still coming to the worms daily, but both parents have been "encouraging" them to move on. Anyway we wish you good shooting on your Fledge Day!
Hopefully I'll have some new ones to show in about a week too.

Kenn :)

Dave, I definitely had 5 bluebird eggs, all of which hatched, and the parents diligently fed them for 18 days. I don't know why the parents weren't here when they fledged. We live in a relatively new subdivision ... all trees are still relatively short. There is a forested area surrounding the subdivision, so I can only assume that somehow the parents managed to coax the babies to wherever they were. All during the incubation and feeding period, the adults would sit on my fence or on one of the rooftops of the houses. They kept a vigilent watch. That is why I was surprised when they weren't here for the fledging. I witnessed each of the babies as they left the box.

When the parents visit the mealie tray they gather a mouthful of worms and head off toward the forest. So I can only assume they are feeding their babies. I will be so glad when they decide to bring them back for me to see.

Mine follow the adults to the feeder in a week to 10 days. You should see plenty of them then.

This is typical of how my birds coax the nestlings to fledge. She had just dangled the catapillar just beyond the baby's reach. It flew a few seconds after this shot.

Now that is a great picture of parental leading! I do recall the parents peeping inside the box while dangling a worm, then flying away with the worm, but they never hung around with it. They always went away in the same direction -- toward the forest -- but they went totally out of my sight. Now that the birds have fledged, the parents come to the feeder and fly off in the same direction with the wormies. I am really looking forward to the little ones coming back so I can see them. I continue to put out the worms 2 or 3 times a day.

I really appreciate all of the info you have shared. I know a lot more now than I ever did. Thanks.

This is a great illustration of male and female fledgling colors.

Thanks Anita. Too bad some of the pictures are now missing from that thread. I can't imagine why. I didn't pull them, and I don't think I can tell which ones they were by the narrative I wrote last year.

My third clutch is due to fledge this coming Sunday or Monday. My first two nestings were disasters so I am holding my breath.

Although it has absolutely nothing to with the subject of this thread, here are some fun shots I took today of my new step-dad. He's been a tremendous help to Mama after she lost her mate while she was six days into incubation. He likes to balance on one leg when he stretches. As you can see, he does it on either side.

Well, actually, this next one was yesterday after he had taken a bath.

Here you can see he is curious as to why I plugged the opening of this box. My previous male was killed by a HOSP in that box a couple of weeks ago. I had left it up as a dummy box and usually had a VanErt trap in it.

And lastly, here is a portrait of the new male. He showed up just 7 hours after Papa was killed and treats the five nestlings like they were his own.

These are great photos, I guess I need a bigger, better camera, mine look sick!

Our birds fledged last week while we were gone to Ohio we live near St. Louis, Mo. When we came home last week on Wed. the 12th all the birds were here sitting on the wire back by the woods & fields, until a strom blew in Monday and we haven't seen any birds not even robins,indigo buntings .... only birds around are finches and turtle doves. Its been storming off and on for 3 days suppose to be nice for the weekend. You think the blue's family might come back?

Sorry I meant to post not to put on followup.