Happy Couple

Here are our pair of bluebirds, sitting on the nest box they have chosen. We think it's possible the female is the same female that nested here last summer, but it's very hard to tell. The bluebirds from last year, named "Buffy" and "Spot", bred in mid-July to August and both were molting, so they looked ratty and were not in their best colors. It is hard to know what they would look like now, in bright, fresh, breeding plumage.

The male is probably not Spot, named because he had a dark notch, creating a spot in his upper breast. His white extended in a large slash up into the red of his breast. This new male has no spot and the line between red and white is a smooth curve. Is the female Buffy? Buffy had a very pale head, without much blue on it, and a pale reddish breast with the white in a smooth line across the red. This female seems to have a notch of white extending into the red of her breast, although she has a pale head. Also, they have chosen a nest box that is not the same box they bred in last year, not unusual for bluebirds, but sometimes bluebirds use the same box.

So who is this happy couple? A different pair altogether? Is one of them a Spot and Buffy offspring from last year? Wish they could talk.