Bluebirds in her pockets

By Vince Patton on October 15, 2009

For 33 years Elsie Eltzroth has had bluebirds in her pockets.

She sewed big, warm, cushy pockets onto the outside of a light jacket just to provide a cozy warm setting for the birds she cares for so much.
Elsie is the dynamo who has spearheaded the Bluebird Trail recovery project for the Audubon Society of Corvallis.  She started this project 33 years ago.   Ever since the mid 1970’s she’s built nest boxes, watched over broods, and kept such good records that scientists use her data when documenting bluebird numbers in her region.  This year Corvallis Auduon gave her its Homer Campbell Conservation Award.

So why stuff bluebirds in her pockets?  Well, she has permits to band the legs of baby bluebirds.   To do that she’s got to take them out of their nests briefly.

But she also doesn’t want them any more upset by the process than need be.  So she carefully removes the chicks one by one, then places each one in her pocket.  They cuddle together in the nest; they might as well pile next to each other in her pocket.

She has a system too.  Chicks come out of the nest and go in her right pocket.  Once she’s banded it, she moves it to her left pocket.  Bluebirds can have 4 or 5 chicks at a time.  As soon as banding is done, she takes them right back to their nest.

Contrary to popular myth, the parents do not reject the baby birds.

Elsie retired from tending her flock at the age of 86.  Watch her story here online.