News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Crossville City Council members passed a resolution Tuesday declaring the Eastern Bluebird as the official bird of the city.
Crossville Mayor James Mayberry made the motion to approve the resolution.
“Cumberland County has a healthy population of bluebirds,” Mayberry said. “The Cumberland County Bluebird club places and currently monitors over 130 bluebird nest boxes at Bear Trace Golf Course, Four courses in Fairfield, and in Uplands Village in Pleasant Hill. They have also been very active in placing the boxes in Crossville.”
The President of the Tennessee Association of Eastern Bluebirds actually lives in Cumberland County and has worked to place those bird boxes across the county.
Resident Paul Shipley started a petition urging Crossville officials to name the Eastern Bluebird as the official bird of the city.
Shipley said he’s been raising Eastern Bluebirds for some 20-years.
“We got the birds around and they’re absolutely harmless,” Shipley said. “You can put them in your backyard and just sit out for hours watching them raise their young and sing. They’re just totally beautiful, so why not?”
Shipley said the Eastern Bluebird seems to like the climate of the area because of the mild temperature.
“It’s not hot here and we get almost three broods a year here,” Shipley said. “Other places where it gets up in the 90’s in July and August, they only get one brood.
The birds only live three to four years, which is why it’s important to reproduce them so the population stays healthy and alive, Shipley said.
The city plans to put out information on how residents can build bird boxes at their homes and TCAT plans to construct some boxes for the city.
The Eastern Bluebird is the official state bird of Missouri and New York.
