Nov., 1912 
221 
f 
NESTINCx HABITS OF THE AVESTERN BLUEBIRD 
By HARRIET WILLIAMS MYERS 
HE A¥estern Bluebirds are, as a rule, winter visitants, only, in the vicinity 
of Los Angeles, staying about in small flocks until spring, when they 
disappear. Recently, however, some of them have been changing their 
habits and becoming resident birds. 
The only place where I have known of their nesting is in a Los Angeles 
city park, called Sycamore Grove. This park is a continuation of the Arroyo 
Seco, and is filled with large live oak and sycamore trees. One side is bordered 
by a busy thoroughfare where electric cars and vehicles are continually passing. 
Moreover, this park is a most popular place for picnic parties and is filled with 
people throughout the summer months. It seemed a little queer that these birds 
should have chosen so busy a place for a nesting site, when Ijy going a little 
farther back they could have had perfect quiet. 
On the 24th of April, 1910, while watching birds at Sycamore Grove, I 
noticed a male Bluebird flying about. Having been told that these birds nested 
in the park the year before, I gave all my attention to locating them. I had 
waited only a short time when the female appeared on a wire that was strung 
among the big trees. After darting out into the air and down onto the lawn a 
few times, she flew up into a tall sycamore tree that grew close beside the walk 
on that busy thoroughfare, Pasadena Avenue. This tree had four trunks, one of 
which had been broken off about thirty feet from the ground. A round hole 
just below the break, partially hidden by a growth of new leaves, suggested that 
it had once been the nesting site of a woodpecker. 
For one hour and thirty-five minutes I watched the nest. During this 
time the female left four times, staying away five minutes once and eight the 
other times. Her times for brooding were respectively twenty-two, eighteen, ten, 
and twenty-four minutes. Almost invariably during this and subsequent w'atch- 
ings the female did not leave the nest until the male came to it. A small broken 
limb grew out from the nesting trunk and this was used by the male as a resting- 
place. He never brooded the eggs, although sometimes he hopped down into 
the nest, or beside it, as if to assure himself of their safety; then after a moment’s 
inspection he returned to the resting site, or flew directly away. His coming 
to the dead branch was always a signal for the female to leave the nest and fly 
away. It was almost as if the little mother away up there above everything, 
and with only the blue sky to look at, knew' that her mate was thinking of her 
and would come and remind her, and this he surely did. 
He did not seem to guard the nest while the little mother was away, but 
often accompanied her. Together they foraged about on the lawn or in the 
trees until time to return to the nest, wLen quite often the gallant male accom- 
pained his mate homeward, then flew away when he had seen her located. Neither 
bird seemed at all shy, oftentimes foraging about on the lawn only a few feet 
from where I sat. 
Four days later I again visited the nest, staying an hour and a half. During 
that time the female left the nest four times as before. The longest interval 
of staying aw'ay was twenty-seven minutes; the shortest tw'o minutes. The 
longest interval of brooding w'as sixteen minutes ; the shortest thirteen. Twice 
