There may not be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, but there are bluebirds here in Massachusetts all year round. This male Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) (photo courtesy of Wikipedia) is posing in a way that reminds us that these are, to some extent, the "Robins" of the Eastern United States.
I'm going to have to explain that. The Robin (Erithacus rubecula) – below (courtesy of Wikipedia) – is a small European member of the thrush family: the well-known Robin Redbreast. When the settlers arrived in this part of the world in the 17th century, they found another type of large thrush with a bright orange breast: the American Robin (Turdus migratorius). They decided to call it a Robin. Unfortunately, its behavior and ecological role is nothing like that of its European namesake. In fact, it behaves much more like the Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos).
I should point out that there's another candidate over here to be the ecological equivalent of the European Robin. That's the Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) which is a similar size to the Robin although slightly larger (and slightly smaller than the bluebird). This similarity between the Hermit Thrush and the Robin is entirely my own observation and based on just a few sightings of the Hermit Thrush.
Getting back to the Bluebird! Here I have to make an admission of total ignorance. I didn't realize that the Bluebird was a thrush – I thought it was a flycatcher. Duh! This makes quite a difference because there aren't too many flies around during the month of February here in Carlisle. So I was a little worried about what I thought were early (and hungry) migrants. Here is what I sent to MASSBIRD:
ridiculously early to see bluebirds around here, although I note that
five were seen at Turner's Falls on Feb 6th. Should I be concerned for
the health of these individual birds? I'm reminded of back in November
(17th) during an unusually warm spell when a phoebe was in our yard.
And, even more unexpected was a ruby-throated hummingbird I saw a few
years ago at Waterville Valley during October when there was snow on the
ground!
Are these early (or late) migrants doomed? Nature is generally not kind
to these sorts of mistakes. And while I know that it's healthier for
the species to have only the smart birds survive, I do find myself
anxious for the sake of these wayward individuals.
Almost immediately, I received 15 responses from other readers of the MASSBIRD list. They all pointed out that bluebirds are regularly (and normally) seen during the winter around here. One person was kind enough to point out that they are thrushes and eat fruits and insects [not flies]!
So, today I posted another comment:
me straight about wintering bluebirds in this part of the world. What
particularly impressed me was the obvious love of these birds shown by
so many. And there was not one response that even remotely resembled a
"flame", as I would expect if made some obviously ill-informed comment
on a sports, or political forum, etc.
We do have (or rather did until quite recently) a few berries still in
our yard. We don't have a feeder of any sort.
I'm quite appalled at my lack of knowledge about this bird, especially
as it shares so much with my namesake, the (European) Robin (Erithacus
Rubecula). But I'm remedying the situation. And it turns out that my
memory isn't so great either. I reported on a bluebird last year on 2/27.
One final note. In the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas
(http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/BreedingBirdAtlas/viewer.htm), the
bluebird is shown as a "possible" nester in our square (covers most of
Carlisle except the Western and Northern slices). But from behavioral
observations, I'm fairly sure they are breeding close by. And surely on
the Towle field too?
Now that I've discovered this potentially close relationship between Bluebirds and Robins, there's just one snag. Ornithologists have discovered that the European Robin isn't really a thrush at all, it belongs to the old world flycatchers! OMG :)
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