{"id":134720,"date":"2024-09-17T01:30:31","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T07:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=134720"},"modified":"2024-09-17T03:00:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T08:00:08","slug":"hatch-year-eastern-bluebird-at-a-birdbath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/09\/17\/hatch-year-eastern-bluebird-at-a-birdbath\/","title":{"rendered":"Hatch Year Eastern Bluebird At A Birdbath"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It has been quite the spring and summer for me. Part of the reason is seeing three broods of bluebirds. This hatch-year Eastern Bluebird might be one of them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-134717 size-full\" title=\"Hatch year Eastern Bluebird male at a birdbath\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488.jpg\" alt=\"Hatch year Eastern Bluebird male at a birdbath, Sebastian County, Arkansas\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Hatch year Eastern Bluebird male at a birdbath &#8211; \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f8, 1\/400, ISO 1600, +0.3 EV, Canon 100-400mm at 278mm, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This spring and summer, I watched the first brood of baby <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/04\/24\/mama-eastern-bluebird-is-no-more\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">bluebirds fledge after losing their female parent<\/span><\/a>, possibly to a Cooper&#8217;s Hawk.<\/p>\n<p>The male found a new female, and before long, they were incubating the second brood in the nestbox. I didn\u2019t get to see those Eastern Bluebird chicks fledge, but thankfully, I did get to see and photograph them later on.<\/p>\n<p>Then came the surprise of a third brood in the same nestbox! <a href=\"https:\/\/stevecreek.com\/a-morning-with-the-baby-bluebird\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Steve Creek<\/span><\/a> and I wondered if any chicks would survive the extremely warm temps and make it to fledging day. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/07\/31\/young-eastern-bluebird-fledging-day\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">One did<\/span><\/a>! We watched that single chick fledge on the 30th of July.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the bluebirds have been around but not all that close. Most of the time, I\u2019d see them high in the pines, or I\u2019d just hear them calling softly.<\/p>\n<p>From a distance over the past couple of weeks, I have been watching the young Eastern Bluebirds molt out of their juvenal plumage and have wanted to take photos of them again.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, this hatch year bluebird flew in while I was outside with a camera in hand. I didn&#8217;t have time to zoom all the way out, so I stood up and took a short series of photos of this young male.<\/p>\n<p>The light wasn\u2019t great because of heavy cloud cover, but I got the shots I wanted.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been fantastic to see Eastern Bluebirds again, and photographing all of the young bluebirds was terrific. Thanks for sharing them with me, Creek!<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/eastern-bluebird-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Eastern Bluebird photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has been quite the spring and summer for me. Part of the reason is seeing three broods of bluebirds. This hatch-year Eastern Bluebird might be one of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13950,27,14094,13951],"tags":[15008,14182,5933,4880,14096,13931,5381,4067,4062,14095,2315,3844,4881,8018,3996,13966,4193],"class_list":["post-134720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arkansas","category-avian","category-eastern-bluebirds","category-sebastian-county","tag-bird-bath","tag-birdbath","tag-bluebird","tag-bluebirds","tag-eastern-bluebird","tag-garden","tag-hatch-year","tag-immature","tag-male","tag-sialia-sialis","tag-summer-3","tag-thrush","tag-thrushes","tag-urban","tag-water","tag-yard","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/eastern-bluebird-hatch-year-birdbath-mia-mcpherson-C1488.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-z2U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130987,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/07\/21\/eastern-bluebird-images-near-the-birdbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":134720,"position":0},"title":"Eastern Bluebird Images: Near The Birdbath","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sharing these seven Eastern Bluebird images that I took yesterday because I like them and because I am getting behind on sharing Arkansas photos.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Eastern Bluebird on driftwood over the birdbath, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/eastern-bluebird-immature-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-4512.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/eastern-bluebird-immature-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-4512.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/eastern-bluebird-immature-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-4512.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/eastern-bluebird-immature-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-4512.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":140483,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/02\/21\/female-eastern-bluebird-eating-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":134720,"position":1},"title":"Female Eastern Bluebird Eating Snow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"When the sleet, ice, and snow stopped falling two days ago, I was outside photographing birds when I took photos of this female Eastern Bluebird eating snow.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Eastern Bluebird eating snow in Arkansas, Sebastian County","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/eastern-bluebird-female-eating-snow-mia-mcpherson-4165.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/eastern-bluebird-female-eating-snow-mia-mcpherson-4165.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/eastern-bluebird-female-eating-snow-mia-mcpherson-4165.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/eastern-bluebird-female-eating-snow-mia-mcpherson-4165.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":142048,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/03\/27\/female-eastern-bluebird-is-busy-nest-building\/","url_meta":{"origin":134720,"position":2},"title":"Female Eastern Bluebird Is Busy Nest Building","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The female Eastern Bluebird here has been very busy the last three days, bringing in nesting materials by the beakful to place inside the nesting box.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Eastern Bluebird with nesting materials, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/eastern-bluebird-female-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-1632.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/eastern-bluebird-female-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-1632.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/eastern-bluebird-female-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-1632.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/eastern-bluebird-female-nesting-material-mia-mcpherson-1632.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137714,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/12\/08\/male-eastern-bluebird-on-a-december-morning\/","url_meta":{"origin":134720,"position":3},"title":"Male Eastern Bluebird On A December Morning","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I simply can't resist photographing bluebirds when I see them, and this male Eastern Bluebird I had in my viewfinder yesterday was certainly no exception.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"December male Eastern Bluebird, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/eastern-bluebird-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-7034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/eastern-bluebird-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-7034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/eastern-bluebird-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-7034.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/eastern-bluebird-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-7034.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":147718,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/06\/03\/eastern-bluebird-in-a-light-rain\/","url_meta":{"origin":134720,"position":4},"title":"Eastern Bluebird In A Light Rain","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Bad weather doesn\u2019t usually stop me from photographing birds and wildlife. This female Eastern Bluebird was photographed in a light rain recently.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Eastern Bluebird in a light rain, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/eastern-bluebird-wet-rain-mia-mcpherson-8494.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/eastern-bluebird-wet-rain-mia-mcpherson-8494.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/eastern-bluebird-wet-rain-mia-mcpherson-8494.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/eastern-bluebird-wet-rain-mia-mcpherson-8494.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":144243,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/05\/11\/super-mom-eastern-bluebird-for-mothers-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":134720,"position":5},"title":"Super Mom Eastern Bluebird For Mother&#8217;s Day","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Since today is Mother's Day, I wanted to tell the story of this super mom Eastern Bluebird and all she has accomplished since the end of March.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Super female Eastern Bluebird, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/eastern-bluebird-female-mia-mcpherson-2115.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/eastern-bluebird-female-mia-mcpherson-2115.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/eastern-bluebird-female-mia-mcpherson-2115.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/eastern-bluebird-female-mia-mcpherson-2115.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}