An unhappy Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” wistfully sings, “If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow—why, oh why can’t I?” Bluebirds have often been associated with happiness and good luck. The bird is simply beautiful with its vivid blue back, rusty breast, and soothing warble. Pennsylvania is lucky to be home yearlong to these lovely birds, but it hasn’t been without heartache.

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, bluebirds faced many obstacles during the 20th century. Unlike many birds that build open-air nests in trees or under eaves in buildings, bluebirds are cavity-nesters—they need a fully enclosed space in order to lay eggs and raise their young. The introduction of a type of sparrow to New York City during the 1850s (house or English sparrow) seemed like a good idea at the time, but their population spread rapidly and they commandeered many of the available tree cavities that bluebirds and other native birds would normally use. These sparrows are also aggressive, and will kill birds to remove them from an enclosure. Combine that with the use of toxic pesticides like DDT in the mid 1900s, and bluebirds were in serious trouble. Once DDT was banned and groups like The Bluebird Society of Pennsylvania (BSP) stepped in to help supply nesting cavities, the bluebird population slowly started to improve.

The BSP was established in 1998 with a main mission to protect and propagate bluebirds and other native cavity-nesting species. In Chester County, cavity nesters include tree swallows, Carolina chickadees, and house wrens. A main strategy to achieve this mission includes building, maintaining, and monitoring the numerous bluebird nest box “trails” across the state.

That’s where Bob Suter of Kennett Square fits in. He and a team of neighborhood volunteers monitor 52 nest boxes, all located in Crosslands, a Life-Care Community, in Kennett Square.

Bob was a 40-year professor of biology at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY before he and his wife Val moved to the area in 2017. He immediately became involved with the Bluebird Society when he noticed all of the nest boxes in Crosslands.

“I came here and our next-door neighbor was already in the group that was monitoring. And because I was immediately interested, we just got to talking and I joined him pretty much right away,” Super said. “They started doing their rounds at the end of March and I was part of that.”

BSP emphasizes that nest box monitoring is important. Visiting a box once per week helps to track progress and manage problems, giving the birds the best possible opportunity to lay eggs and raise their families.

BSP trail monitors open their assigned nest boxes every week during the “season,” which usually runs from April to mid-September. They log any nest-building activity, count laid eggs, verify when babies leave (or “fledge”), and then clean out boxes with the hope that either the same bird or another will build a nest and start the process again. It is common for bluebirds to have two broods, and may even have three each year. At Crosslands, two teams of three walk about a mile to check, log, and fix problems at 26 boxes. The following week, the teams switch so every volunteer sees all 52 boxes every two weeks.

During the winter and especially in March, bluebirds begin to scout out nest boxes. They like their boxes to be in open areas, and the meadows surrounding Crosslands’ cottages are ideal. Once a pair decides on a home, females take four or five days to build a nest, usually out of pine needles or straw. Females then lay one egg per day. After she lays all of her eggs (usually between four and six), she provides warmth by sitting on them and the 14-day incubation period begins.

During this time, she rarely leaves the nest; the male brings her insects to eat. She sometimes will not move even when a monitor opens the door to do their count. That does not deter Suter from his monitoring duties. “I'm not shy about putting my fingers under a female who won't leave the nest and finding out how many eggs she's got,” he said.

Suter explained that because incubation for all eggs start at the same time, babies hatch within minutes or hours of each other. He said that virtually all of the songbirds here in Pennsylvania are “synchronous hatchers.” If babies hatched on different days, some would be stronger and bigger than others. Younger birds may become weak and could likely die. “Once the kids hatch, they (the parents) both are out and coming back. And they come back about every 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how good the food is, how much food they're finding. But there are two of them,” Suter said. “They are responding to whose gape is widest and who's got the strongest sound. And if something's got a full stomach, they're not going to have their gape up there at all. So that spreads the goodies around.”

Babies stay in the boxes for 18-20 days. When it’s time for them to fledge, the parents stop feeding and one by one, like planes taking off at an airport, the birds come up to the entry hole and fly out of the box. They no longer need the nest, so monitors clean it out and hope for another round.

To improve motivation, Suter sends updated progress reports to the team throughout the season. Thanks to Crosslands volunteers, their 52 boxes yielded 161 bluebirds, 50 tree swallows, 17 house wrens and 13 chickadee babies in 2023. He also is an excellent photographer, and sends out beautiful images taken from his glassed-in porch.

Kennett Square is fortunate to also have BSP trails at Unionville and Pocopson Parks, as well as a 200-box trail on property owned by Longwood Gardens. Suter helps out at Longwood too.

Asked why he devotes so much time to the birds, Suter emphasized that our native birds need human help. Problems such as leaky roofs, bent support poles, and invasions by house sparrows, are beyond what bluebirds can handle. He tends to these issues weekly and cleans out nests when babies have fledged so the life cycle can start again.

Suter gets a great deal of satisfaction when the babies leave the nest, even though he hardly is ever in the right place at the right time to witness it.

“That just makes you feel like you did a good job,” he said with a smile. “ Although what in fact happened is THEY did a good job and you just happened to have written it down and seen some of it. But you feel moderately parental about it.”

The Bluebird Society of Pennsylvania is a non-profit organization (EIN: 25-1810835) which would love more members and volunteers. Everything bluebird, including how to attract them and easy nest box building plans, can be found on their website at www.thepsb.org. They also have a Facebook page.