CASCADE, Idaho — Al Larson came to Idaho at the age of three, but he didn't quite settle. His stepdad was a pastor, so his family moved around a lot. For example, in second grade he attended four separate schools.
By the time he hit junior high, the family finally made Idaho their home. Maybe he learned how to be comfortable with all that moving around. Perhaps, that's the reason he found a passion in a species with a mobile lifestyle that matched his early years.
The mountain bluebird.
There's certainly two reasons Larson became known as Idaho's bluebird man. His care for conservation of the bluebird, and his longevity in doing it.
That is fitting, because he's celebrating his 102nd birthday, 99 years after he first stepped foot in the Gem State.
KTVB first introduced Larson in 1992. Locals were calling him the Bluebird Man. At that time, he was a young 68, checking on his bluebird boxes across southwestern Idaho.
Today, he still remembers how many birds he banded.
"All told I think it's around 31,400 blue birds that I put bands on," Larson said. "I got to be known as the Bluebird Man, haha do you like that? I don't mind it, people still call me the Bluebird Man."
His interest in photography feathered into his interest in Idaho's state bird 1978, when he lived near Idaho City.
"I was out for a walk when I noticed a bluebird going into a natural cavity of a tree. I thought well if I could put up a box like they have back east, I could have a captive bird I could take pictures of, so I started putting boxes up."
He said he has put up close to 360 boxes in his lifetime. He records when each box was built, how many eggs hatch and the number of bluebird fledglings that leave the nest.
At one time, Larson had bluebird boxes in six different Idaho Counties, and he would routinely check them until he was well into his 90s.
For decades, his work with the bluebirds, the time and his age, were nothing but numbers.
But today is a number with some personal significance for him.
"Today is my birthday, I'm 102," he said."I tell people I've finished my first century and working on my second."
Mobility can become an issue in one's second century of life but that has not kept him from seeing his birds.
"Right now, I have windows in my bedroom where I spend most of my time with feeders on my window, so I've got birds coming to visit me all day," he said. "I think, well, I've got my friends coming up to see me – bird friends. Now I'm in a cage and they're outside."
As for the legacy he built with the bluebirds, it's all about helping, and that hasn't changed 34 years later.
"I guess I like bluebirds because they like me," Larson said. "I think it helps a person realize his place in life if he gets close to these birds other wildlife, and if you help them out you have a more direct part in it."
His efforts with the bluebirds did not go unnoticed. He was the subject of an Emmy-nominated documentary a few years ago.
According to the American Breeding Bird Survey, the mountain bluebird population is declining but remained relatively steady between 1966 and 2019.
As for who is checking his bird boxes these days, Larson told us the man who used to drive him around to check his boxes during the last three years will take over some of them.
Larson is also a surviving World War II veteran. He served three years with the Marine Corps Signal Battalion in the Pacific Theatre.
From all of us on the 208, happy 102, Al.
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