Introduction
Heritage Park (211 acres) is a natural area located in suburban Farmington Hills, MI along the Rouge River. If this scenario sounds familiar, it's because RRBO's site is also an urban natural area located along the Rouge. Thus, a partnership with the Farmington Area Naturalists in this sister site seemed like a winning proposition. Four years ago, F.A.N. put up bluebird houses at Heritage Park, and have succeeded in bringing Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) back to the suburbs to nest. In 1996, RRBO began banding nestling bluebirds at Heritage Park with a standard U.S. Fish and Wildlife aluminum band, and a unique combination of two colored bands so that individuals can be recognized. Our goal is to see how many birds return each year to nest, and if they are the same birds that spend the winter at the park.

This research will be expanded to nearby Woodland Hills Park (72 acres), where a bluebird trail will be established in the future.

Jump to results: 1996 | 1997
  

A baby female bluebird on the left, a male on the right

Banding the single female of the 3rd brood was interesting. When Julie Craves and John Lowry met with Don Hodges to band her, she had already left the nest and was flying very well. They found her sitting in a tree, and "Fast Hands" Craves snuck up on her and snatched her bare-handed! The ensuing ruckus from the parents, the three youngsters from the previous brood (who often serve as helpers at the nest) AND several more bluebirds was pretty amusing!
 

Want to know more about Eastern Bluebirds? Visit the North American Bluebird Society web site, or learn more about Eastern Bluebird life history, population trends, distribution data from the Breeding Bird Survey  Information on bluebird nest boxes is available here.

Drawing by Steve Lewis

1997 field work results
Due to maraunding House Wrens and vandalized boxes, only two broods of bluebirds fledged this year. The first, a male and a female, were banded on 8 June.  A week later, Don Hodges found four eggs in another box, tended by Red-Red, the first baby color-banded last year on 7 June 1996!  Unfortunately, this clutch was lost to wrens, but Red-Red re-nested with an unbanded female and fledged four young, which we banded on 29 July.

RRBO and FAN hope to continue this research in the future.

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