Blue Sky Bluebird

One spring day when the ground is a carpet of green, a pair of bluebirds arrives at their summer home. Inside their nest box the female weaves layers of coarse grass into a circle. Then she presses her body into the middle to make a cup.

A season in the life of a bluebird family

In a cozy nest of grass a female bluebird lays her eggs, blue as the summer sky. When they hatch, there are four tiny chicks to feed. From morning to night, the parent birds hunt for tasty insects to give to their hungry brood.

The chicks grow quickly, and within a few weeks they have enough feathers to learn to fly. At first their wings are shaky and unsure, but soon the fledglings are fast enough to catch their own meals. Now the nearly grown chicks can help their parents raise a new brood of hungry babies-before the cold winter drives the family south.

Publishers Weekly

On the heels of his Army Ant Parade, Rick Chrustowski examines a clutch of young bluebird hatchlings as they learn to fly in Blue Sky Bluebird. One reluctant bluebird is depicted taking flight for the first time. The book features a sidebar, "Peek Inside an Egg," that shows the embryo's development, and concludes by discussing the resurgence of the bluebird population as well as variants in the species across the nation. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Rick Chrustowski is the author/illustrator of Hop Frog and Bright Beetle, as well as the illustrator of Army Ant Parade and Lunch at the Zoo. He lives and works in an old farmhouse on a hill in Wisconsin. Mr. Chrustowski loves to learn about nature, and while he was creating this book he spent lots of time studying the bluebirds that live in the nest box he made for them.