The eggs hatched a day apart. Three the first day, and the next two the day after that. They looked terrific, and had no trouble at all flying. But boy was I surprised when those two flew out. I'm still giving them mealworms, and the parents are feeding in nearby trees. They had more than enough to eat between the weather and my supplemental mealworm feeder, so this is quite strange. I have had one fledge in the evening before with the others all fledging the next day, but this is odd. There were no blowfly larva that I could see when I took out the nest (in case this makes any difference).

I'm usually able to tell by the behavior of the parents. They will bring food but not feed them. Land on the box, go to the entrance then back to the top of the box, like they're trying to entice them out. I still don't always catch the fledge as this can happen at any time of day. Sometimes early morning, and even right before nightfall. The parents will also become very aggressive if you get near the box at fledge time. They will dive bomb you to protect their fledglings. I was about 60 feet away during the last fledge I witnessed. I used binoculars to keep a good distance and they still dive bombed me.

2 of the babies from our last clutch are still hanging around. They will beg, but I haven't observed the parents feeding them anymore. Interesting thing happened yesterday. There are 4 new eggs which the female is incubating. I observed one of the fledglings enter the box, and he/she never came out! It was late afternoon...quite warm...Was he snuggling with the female? couldnt guess. I will add that during a very cold spell in the winter, every evening 5 bluebirds would arrive and crowd into the house. In the morning, they would fly out, one by one, wake up a little, then fly off. But every evening, they would arrive, one by one, and go back into their "bedroom " together!

glhandler....you mentioned checking the box often on this nesting that fledged on day 14. Had you checked it on the day they fledged? You could have caused them to prematurely fledged by opening the box that late. You said they fledged on 6/17 that is two days ago. A newly fledged baby bluebird would not be following the adults to the feeders yet at all. They stay hidden in the trees and the parents go feed them. They don't normaly follow the adults to feeders until at least 7-10 days and sometimes longer. You are probably seeing some first nesting fledges with the adults not the newly fledged ones. Hopefully these early fledges are ok, I doubt they would fly real well at that age. I had one fledge on day 14 once because I opened the box...he couldn't fly at all. Put him back in and added a hole reducer. Day 15 he still couldn't fly but the other three could (not well but they got lift off) and I let him be. He did end up making it ok but opening the box after day 12/13 isn't a good idea. Not sure that you did that actually though but if so it might have been why they fledged. Donna