This is so heartwarming...I'm glad all went well, great pictures and story, thanks for sharing!
Konrad

They are so beautiful! You made my whole day!!!

Great pictures (as usual) to illustrate a great story. Keep em coming!

i love the pictures, thanks for sharing!

I've come back several times to see the pictures again - that Missy deserves the mother of the year award for single-handedly (single-wingedly?) boosting the local bluebird population ten-fold in one season (and Mr. B contributed of course).

And the color-coded feeding dish is inspired!

Thanks,
Claire

May I ask what kinds of food are in the blue dish and how close to the birds when they're feeding will they allow you?

I've always enjoyed your photos.

Thank you,

Dax

Thanks all, we love to share our birds :)

Claire - We are so proud of Missy of course... but you're right to say that Mr.B plays an equal role really. He feeds the babies and their mom both in the nests and after the fledgings. And he is vigilant to guard the whole family thruout the season. Missy could not hope for a better mate.

Dax - That blue dish is our mealworm feeder. But we also serve them suet nuggets, raisins, and scrambled egg in various other little bowls and dishes. They are very accustomed to us and come within a few feet at feeding times. Most of the photos in the gallery were taken at distances of 4-8ft, but they often come even closer than we can focus a shot.

thanks again everybody for your replies,

Kenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Bluebird Slideshow

I love seeing Missy and Mr. B's photo and what they've acheived over the years, it really is awe inspiring. All the fledglings are so darn cute. Can I ask how you can tell each of the fledglings from past summers, apart from the others, or can you? Do they all stay around or basically just Missy and Mr. B.?

Linda

Hi Linda,

We see all the fledglings from each season until late fall, and a few stay over-winter with their parents. It's pretty easy to tell the the babies from each nest apart as they mature, because their development from speckled fluff to blue and rust is widely staggered. You can see the fledglings from this year's 4 nestings compared at the link below.

All the prior-year fledges leave (or are chased off by their parents) by the time the first nesting begins in the following spring. We watch them grow from nestlings to full adult plumage over the course of each nesting season. But once they leave to find their own territories, we generally don't see them again.

Kenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Getting Rusty

I find this so facinating, unfortunately, I have never had the pleausre of bluebirds nesting in my birdhouses, too many sparrows, I'm sure. I have had chickadees and wrens, which are a lot of fun but would just love to have bluebirds.

It's kind of sad that the nestings grow up and go off to carve out their own netch in the world but, at the same time, it's great to know that Missy and Mr. B., are populating this country with lots of bluebirds. Hope you have many more seasons of nestings from Missy and Mr. B.

Linda

Wow, 4 broods - incredible year! These 2 are the bionic Bluebirds! You are very lucky to share your little patch of Earth with this pair. Hope that Mr. B and Missy have many (a few?) more productive years.

Great photos, as usual. :)

Your photos are so beautiful. Thank you for sharing them with us!

Incredible, thank you,

Dax

Just wonderful to see these. Thanks for sharing them, I have never seen a blue bird. Lucky you to have so many clutches!

Your pictures are always amazing. It's not just your incredible talent at taking them, but also your ability to have gained their trust to take these pictures so close up. I love seeing all the young sitting together to eat out of your mealworm bowl. May I ask how many years it took you to be able to photograph them from so close? This was my first year with nestlings, though I do feed them in the winter as well. My Bluebirds are still quite cautious and do not come down to feed unless I'm at least 20 feet away. And the young never gather all at once for mealworms. They will come one or two at a time, while the others wait in a nearby tree. Your slide show was fabulous. I loved seeing them all in their different stages of molting into their adult colors.

Thanks again for all your replies,

We are very lucky indeed, to have watched this prodigious pair fledge 49 baby Blues over the seasons they've been with us. We couldn't be more proud of them all, and sharing their success with our online friends only adds to our joy of them. :)

happy birding all,

Kenn

Hi Kendra,

Our first season (2007) began with the July nesting. The nestbox is quite near the deck and they were very tolerant of our photographing them up close even then. But we weren't feeding them worms that first year, and they took that first brood (of 3 or 4) away right after fledging. We didn't see them again until the fall.

But we did begin feeding them then, and they stayed the winter. Missy and Mr.B have been here everyday since, and their each new brood sees their parents bringing them food from the deck even before they leave the box. They see us on the deck while they're still nestlings too, and so they come with their parents (by the nestfull) quite soon after they fledge.

We don't try to hand-feed them, and hope they won't become too trusting of humans generally. But they truly do know us and routinely come very close to us without fear.
We like to say: They are not our birds... we're their people. :)

Kenn

So cute! There's no bluebirds in my area so what a treat this is. Thanks for sharing. How wonderful of you to provide such a safe and productive habitat for Missy and Mr. B.

Wow, thanks Ken. I guess like other creatures Bluebirds each have unique personalities. You are so lucky to have such gregarious Blues. I've been feeding mine for the past two winters, and all summer this year since they had three nestings. And yet they are still quite shy. They will not come down to the mealworm feeder until I have moved away from it. There is a tree they wait on before I come out to fill the feeder that is only about 15 feet from the feeder, but they will not stay on it while I fill the feeder. When they see me coming, they fly up sixty feet into a neighbor's tree. The Black-capped Chickadees, on the other hand, don't leave the suet log until I'm almost close enough to touch it.