Plate 113 – Blue-bird

To John James Audubon, the Blue-bird was “Full of innocent vivacity, warbling its ever pleasing notes, and familiar as any bird can be in its natural freedom.” To his estimation, Audubon considered the Blue-bird as “extremely abundant” throughout the eastern United States. On plantations in the southeastern United States, Audubon counted Blue-birds by the hundreds. The Blue-bird is commonly known today as the Eastern bluebird. The Eastern bluebird remains common in the eastern United States, but to count the bird in the hundreds would take going to a place like Cape May, New Jersey, and joining the Cape May Hawkwatch for ten hours (see eBird Checklist S284341870). The Eastern bluebird gathers more so by the tens or dozens, due in great part to Larry Zeleny and the North American Bluebird Society and the many others who have gone to the supreme effort of building and putting in place boxes for bluebirds to build their nests.