How Do Bluebirds Reproduce?

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Andy Wood. I'm education director for Audubon, North Carolina and I'm here to talk to you about how do bluebirds reproduce. Bluebirds are small members of the thrush family related to robins. And they reproduce unlike most birds in that they build a nest inside a cavity, especially abandoned woodpecker holes or rotted fence posts or just holes in dead trees or snags. They also really like to use bluebird nest boxes that people put around their homes or farms. They reproduce first after pair bonding. A male and a female will decide that they are made for each other for a given year. The male and female mate usually in late February early March depending on the conditions for that winter. If it's a very cold spring they may delay breeding for a few weeks. But they mate, soon after mating the female will start to lay eggs in a nest that she and her mate have constructed in that cavity. The nest is made of grasses and pine straw. She'll lay four to six eggs in that nest and those eggs will take twelve to fourteen days to hatch and then another seventeen to twenty two days from hatching to the young being ready to leave the nest. And that's how bluebirds reproduce."