Expert Reveals the Secret to Attract Bluebirds In Your Garden This Spring: ‘If You Have...'

Hailed as the first son of the “rising Sun,” a bluebird seems to be drunk in the orange brushstroke of the dusky sky, for a rusty-orange jewel pulsates each time the bird breathes or puffs its breast. Resembling a fuzzy ornament of lapis lazuli embellished with comblike barbules, its gorgeous blue plumage has become the object of countless pieces of poetry and art. Yet, when the time comes for two bluebirds to mate and reproduce, they don’t usually have their own nest. Being cavity nesters, per Penn State Extension, they either rent an abandoned woodpecker’s tree hole or depend on humans for shelter.

Humans, on the other hand, can’t wait to capture them in their binoculars or camcorders. When springtime arrives, birdwatchers set up cameras in their garden to snap just one, if not many, photographs of these pops of color dotting their garden. However, it doesn’t come too easily, too soon. It takes hard work. In an interview with Southern Living magazine, biologist Mary Farr from Georgia College and State University shares some tips on how you can attract a bountiful flock of bluebirds in your garden, especially if you live in the South.

One of the best tricks to attract bluebirds to your yard is to cater to them with a delicious buffet of food. Like every other living being, bluebirds are naturally attracted to food, which would go on to be the source of fuel for their body. On how to select the best food for bluebirds, Farr’s first advice is to skip the seeds. Instead, she suggested filling your bird feeder with some protein-rich mealworms. Mealworms, the magazine explains, are “the larvae of darkling beetles,” according to Michigan Bluebirds. When baby bluebirds are ravenously hungry, their moms usually like to feed them with mealworms, which act as fabulous nutritional supplements for their growing bodies.

Another protein-rich treat for a bird feeder is “suet cakes.” According to Decker’s Nursery, suet is a “hard type of white fat that’s found near the kidneys of cattle and, to some degree, sheep.” Rich in fat and protein, suet cakes make up for a nutrition-rich food platter for birds, especially during springtime when they’re hustling with the construction of new nests. In wintery months, these cakes help bluebirds by keeping them healthy and fueled. Other birds, apart from bluebirds, who love suet cakes, include chickadees, crows, goldfinches, jays, nuthatches, robins, sparrows, starlings, warblers, and wrens.

After mealworms and suet cakes come berries. "If you have leftover berries in your fridge, leave them out for the bluebirds to enjoy," says Farr. She also recommends some great berry options to choose from: wild grapes, dogwood berries, blackberries, honeysuckle berries, and raspberries. The Eastern bluebird also loves to snack on cornmeal muffins, sunflower chips, and softened fruits, per Michigan Bluebirds. These coppery-breasted raptors also have animals like shrews, salamanders, snakes, lizards and tree frogs on their prey item list, explains AllAboutBirds.com.

In addition to good food, these blue-winged friends prefer to enter a garden that can offer them a comfortable shelter, the way tourists search for hotel rooms in a foreign city. According to Farr, some of the best plants for a bluebird feeder include raspberry bushes, blueberry bushes, blackberry bushes, pine trees, trumpet honeysuckle bushes, cherry blossoms, purple coneflowers, boxwood trees, and apple trees, among others. A thick bush cover will ensure that your cute bluebird visitors spend as much time as they want in your bird home.