Fern Fennell
Contributor
Mountain bluebirds are back, right on time for the first week of spring!
The Save Shuswap Songbird committee (a collaboration of members from the Shuswap Naturalist Club and SABNES) recently installed new, appropriate bird nest boxes in two locations in North Broadview.
The very colourful and pretty mountain bluebirds are in early stages of selecting a nest box. Currently they are gorging on insects they find in the dormant grass, weeds or from the air. Soon they will begin building their nests by collecting dry grass, twigs and other plant fibres, arranging them into soft safe beds for five to six pale blue eggs which take 13 to 14 days to incubate.
Songbirds have declined by approximately 30 per cent over the past 50 years.
Most of this is caused by loss of habitat, intensifying agriculture, urban sprawl and fragmentation of forests. Other human-caused factors are increased use of pesticides, domestic cats and collisions with windows.
Keep an eye out in the surrounding farm area of Salmon Arm for the very colourful mountain bluebird.
For more information on the Save Shuswap Songbirds campaign, visit www.shuswapnaturalists.org.
Read more: Destruction of nests, birds at Salmon Arm foreshore described as horrifying
Read more: Flight puts light on plight of songbirds
newsroom@saobserver.net
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