Western Bluebird Reintroduction Project

Western Bluebird. Photo: clipart.com

On June 17, 2007, a pair of Western Bluebirds was seen foraging with three young in a field on San Juan Island, Washington. This discovery represents the first successful nesting of the species on the San Juan Islands since the mid 1960s, and confirms the potential for success of ABCs five-year reintroduction project.

The Western Bluebird was formerly a common nesting species throughout northwestern Washington, but populations declined dramatically over the last 50 years due to changes in management practices that removed standing dead trees, and from competition for nesting cavities from the introduced European Starling. The species disappeared from the San Juan Islands in the 1960s, and by the early 1990s, it was absent from historic breeding ranges throughout northwestern Washington and southwestern British Columbia, including Vancouver Island.

Until the commencement of the reintroduction project on San Juan, the northernmost Western Bluebird breeding population was at the Fort Lewis Military Installation near Olympia, Washington. That formerly small population has increased to approximately 200 pairs, thanks to a nest box program involving dedicated volunteers. But the chances of this population recolonizing areas further north were low, given that the Seattle metropolitan area and the waters of Puget Sound present a 100-mile-wide barrier to contiguous habitat.

ABC, along with the Ecostudies Institute, San Juan Preservation Trust, San Juan Islands Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, and the Department of Defense, began a five-year project to reintroduce the Western Bluebird to the San Juan Islands in 2007. Support from the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, the Norcliffe Foundation, the Frances V. R. Seebe Charitable Trust, and several ABC members helped launch this project last winter. "Bring Back the Western Bluebird" is modeled after a successful Eastern Bluebird reintroduction program in Everglades National Park, led by the Ecostudies Institute. In addition to being a reintroduction effort, it is also an education initiative to teach the public about the prairie-oak ecosystem of the San Juan Islands.

During the first two weeks of March, 2007, six pairs of bluebirds were captured at Fort Lewis and transported to San Juan Island. Here they were housed in aviaries on private lands for four days and then released. Biologists will repeat this for two more pairs for a total of eight pairs in 2007, and will continue these efforts over the next five years, with a target of at least 90 birds released. During this time, Western Bluebirds may also be introduced onto another of the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island in British Columbia, depending on the initial success of the releases.

The local community is rallying around the initiative by donating materials for aviaries and nest boxes, and volunteering time to help monitor the birds. The project has even secured the services of a local pilot, who is flying the bluebirds from capture to release sites.

The successful breeding of a pair of reintroduced bluebirds in 2007 exceeds project expectations for the first year, and provides encouragement for the goal of establishing a viable breeding population of Western Bluebirds in this part of their historic range.