Baby Bluebirds

  • The nestlings fledge, or leave the box, seventeen to eighteen days after hatching.
  • Usually the entire brood leaves the box within two hours.
  • The fledglings can fly fifty to a hundred feet on their first flight and try to land in a bush, shrub, or low branches of trees to be off the ground and away from predators.
  • The young have spotted breasts until the fall molt when all bluebirds grow dull feathers for protection from predators.
  • The males are bright blue again by spring.
  • The parents continue to care for the young and teach them how to catch their own food. The male will continue this job when the female begins her second or third nest.