This is BirdNode.

What a lovely song.

The very sound of spring.

A mellow burbled refrain from the edge of a meadow.

A shimmer of blue against the still wintry landscape confirms our eager hope. An eastern bluebird has just returned north.

A male bluebird stands atop a wooden nest box attached to a fence post.

He's an eastern bluebird, a small thrush, and he gleams deep blue

with a rusty orange breast. The bluebird's song and his alert presence assert his claim to

this territory. But an intruder, a tree swallow, dives toward the nest box. With a rough chatter

and raised wings, the bluebird warns the swallow away.

Bluebirds rely on nest boxes.

In the mid-20th century, their numbers in the Northeast declined to the lowest level ever,

due largely to nesting competition from non-native

starlings and house sparrows. Conservation Group stepped up, setting out bluebird trails of nest

boxes built just right for these beautiful birds. Eastern bluebirds have rebounded, and we can

still count on them to welcome the arrival of spring.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food,

which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend.

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