Submitted to The Dominion Post
Wild Birds Unlimited of Morgantown announced the installation of a Bluebird Trail at the West Virginia Botanic Gardens located on Tyrone Road.
The Bluebird Trail will consist of eight eastern bluebird houses mounted on 4 x 4 poles spaced every few hundred feet along the hiking trail. Bluebird houses are essential in helping to maintain the bluebird population in the area. Locally owned and operated, the Wild Birds Unlimited store is located at Suncrest Towne Centre.
“The West Virginia Botanic Garden is the ideal habitat for the eastern bluebird population to flourish, says Scott Cavallaro, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited. “Watching nesting bluebirds is a wonderful experience. Hike along the trail at the botanic garden to witness this extraordinary event.”
The bluebird was once common in North America. The bluebird is a beneficial bird, eating many insects that ruin crops and gardens such as cutworms and grasshoppers. Today, the number of bluebirds has diminished due to habitat loss, overuse of pesticides and predators. Bluebirds prefer open pastures and nest naturally in dead tree cavities and abandoned woodpecker holes. Bluebirds can’t excavate their own nest cavities and depend on either natural or manmade cavities for survival. Their natural habitat is slowly being destroyed by man, and other bird species. House wrens and non-native birds such as house sparrows and European starlings compete aggressively for their nest sites. Bluebirds will readily use manmade nest boxes, and this may be our best hope of bringing the bluebird population back to its original numbers.
Bluebird trails are often found in parks, cemeteries, walking trails, golf courses, pasturelands and assisted living facilities and schools. These are all places where habitats are ideal for the bluebird as they provide low grasses where insects can be easily spotted
Concerned citizens have created what is known as Bluebird trails to help bring the Bluebird population back. You can help protect the bluebird and increase their numbers by creating bluebird trail. A bluebird trail can consist of as little as two or three houses and as many as 25 or more.
Learn more about the West Virginia Botanic Gardens at wvbg.org. Find it at 1061 Tyrone Road. To learn more about Bluebird, go to www.birdsforever. com/trail.html.
