Juvenile Eastern Bluebirds

While Eastern Bluebirds are spotted in central NJ fairly often, this time I got a picture of juvenile Eastern Bluebirds. Though there's some blue plumage that's come in, they have the white speckles of a juvenile. Their thrush cousins, the American Robin, also look speckly as juveniles; presumably this is better camouflage than adult plumage. Though they have a fair number of thrush relatives, their closest relatives, the Western Bluebird and the Mountain Bluebird, live on other parts of the continent.

One of the biggest challenges for bluebirds is to find a place to nest. As cavity nesters, nesting boxes are a good substitute for the tree cavities that used to exist when this area was mostly forest. Duke Farms provides nesting boxes for bluebirds, and my understanding is that the bluebirds on the property successfully raised an above average number of kids this summer. 

July 6, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 221313845, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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