The Sky On His Back

“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.” So wrote Henry David Thoreau, the 19^th Century writer, naturalist and philosopher. He was writing about the eastern bluebird that was a common resident of the fencerows and forest edges that were abundant on the 19^th century farms that were so familiar to Thoreau.

But then came mechanized agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s cost-sharing programs of the mid-20^th century that reimbursed farmers for most of the cost of removing those fencerows to improve efficiency.

So much for the abundance of bluebirds as their nesting and roosting places in the fencerows, hollow trees and rotten fenceposts were eliminated.

When I was a boy, eastern bluebirds were few and far between and seeing one was a treat of the first magnitude. About that time bluebird trails were being created as landowners and others interested in bluebirds installed large numbers of suitable nest boxes –

Now, bluebirds are back in appreciable numbers – and much of the increase in numbers is attributable to the folks who installed and maintained those nest boxes –

Over the last couple of decades eastern bluebirds have become almost common in some areas –

 

With the warmer winters brought about by the changing climate, many bluebirds are spending the winter in northcentral Pennsylvania where they feed on fruit remaining on trees and shrubs.

The resurgence of the eastern bluebird population is one of the conservation success stories of the last 60 years.