Seeing a bluebird
A bluebird on the fence is a family bird: pairs often raise two broods a summer, and young from the first sometimes stay to help feed the next. The sight makes a good moment to think about the helpers who raised you.
What it may mean
Bluebirds are small thrushes, and a pair often raises two broods in a summer. Now and then something touching happens with the second one: a young bird from the first brood, only weeks out of the nest itself, stays near home and carries insects to its new brothers and sisters. Birdwatchers have recorded it in eastern bluebirds, and it happens more often in western bluebirds. The parents get an extra pair of wings, and the young helper gets practice. Human families run on the same help far more than birth certificates suggest. Older siblings, aunts, neighbors and family friends fed, drove, listened and taught. When a bluebird lands on the fence, it is worth remembering who helped raise you.
Depending on how you saw it
Watching from a wire
Bluebirds pick off insects from a low lookout (a wire, a post or a branch), then drop to the ground for a beetle or a caterpillar and fly back up. Patience comes first, the move second. Where is your own low lookout, the place you watch the day from before diving in?
An all-blue bird in the West
In the western mountains and plains, the male mountain bluebird is sky blue all over, with no orange on the breast. People from the East often stop the car to look. Which familiar thing looks completely new to you in another place?
On Valentine's morning
An old list of Valentine's morning omens warned that a girl whose first bird of the day was a bluebird would marry into poverty, a dark reading for such a bright bird. Which sign do you read one way while someone you know reads it the opposite way?
Why it happens in nature
Eastern, western and mountain bluebirds are small thrushes that nest in tree holes and nest boxes. They spot insects from a low perch and drop to the ground for them, and in winter they eat more fruit and berries. Pairs often raise two broods a year, and young from an early brood sometimes help feed the next, more often in western bluebirds than eastern ones.
To reflect on
Who besides your parents helped raise you, and who might you be helping raise now?