Identifying 1st Year Bluebirds

Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 08:20:30 -0800 (PST)
From: Horace Sher hjsher1"at"yahoo.com
To: Bluebird-L"at"Cornell.edu
Subject: Identifying 1st year bluebirds & needing females

Hi everyone..Currently I've had 2 males & 1 female around pretty much the entire winter so far. Of my 2 males, 1 is quite a bit fatter than the other one. The slimmer one, who I think is paired up with the 1 & only female, is much more aggressive. He's chased the other fatter male away from the feeders & different tree areas around in the yard. This fatter male individual..is not aggressive & I've never seen him at any of the 3 or 4 nestboxes that I have around. So I'm assumming he's a 1st year male, & the other more aggressive slimmer male is probably at least 2 years old. He I think may be the father from last year. What do you think? Also, do you think it's likely that Mr. Fatso will try to find a girlfriend this spring & come back with her to nest? Anyone with a similar story, I'd like to hear it. Thanks..Horace in NC.

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Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 13:33:10 -0400
From: Haleya Priest mablue"at"gis.net
To: hjsher1"at"yahoo.com
Cc: Bluebird-L"at"cornell.edu
Subject: Re: Identifying 1st year bluebirds & needing females

Haleya Priest Amherst MA

From my experience, your "Mr. Fat" is the 1st year male and is probably their offspring from last year. Size is actually not to be confused with age. You are right, the father will at this time be pushing all of last year's offspring from his territory. Mr. Fat will have to go find new territory and will NOT return to your yard again soon - or I can guarantee that as nesting season gets underway, the alpha male will fight (near to the death if necessary) any males (including offspring) that enter his territory.

Up here in Western MA I am just beginning to watch the alpha male take hold of the yard. That means that all 6 offspring (includes male and
female) have got to go. The only problem here is that Mr. Brokenwing - the EABL male I rescued last year - (he is a 2+ male) has hung around here all winter due to the EABL not claiming territory in the winter and I am not sure what is going to happen because he isn't just going to leave as
easily as the 1+ males...... :-)

Haleya

Horace Sher wrote:

Hi everyone..Currently I've had 2 males & 1 female around pretty much
the entire winter so far. Of my 2 males, 1 is quite a bit fatter than
the other one. The slimmer one, who I think is paired up with the 1 &
only female, is much more aggressive. He's chased the other fatter male
away from the feeders & different tree areas around in the yard. This
fatter male individual..is not aggressive & I've never seen him at any
of the 3 or 4 nestboxes that I have around. So I'm assumming he's a 1st
year male, & the other more aggressive slimmer male is probably at
least 2 years old. He I think may be the father from last year. What do
you think? Also, do you think it's likely that Mr. Fatso will try to
find a girlfriend this spring & come back with her to nest? Anyone with
a similar story, I'd like to hear it. Thanks..Horace in NC.

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