Bolton seemed unstoppable in the first period after the Tunisian defender Radhi Jaidi had volleyed them into the lead but the second half belonged very much to the Midlands side.
The Blues had been decimated pre-match due to an injury to top striker Mikael Forssell and therefore deployed a lone striker system for their trip to the Wanderers with Emile Heskey being the main target man in front of a five man midfield.
Sam Allardyce's team had to do without their Nigerian playmaker Jay-Jay Okocha so experienced midfielder Gary Speed took the captain's armband for the day.
The game started at quite a medium tempo with Spanish midfielder Ivan Campo testing the Brum goalkeeper Maik Taylor just before the quarter hour mark from a free kick.
On 15 minutes Bolton took the lead when the African centre half Jaidi volleyed home following a deflected headed flick by striker Kevin Davies from a Bruno N'Gotty free kick.
This prompted the home team to play some neat slick passing football which has been their trademark in the opening month of the season with both Kevin Nolan and skipper for the day Speed forming a useful partnership in the middle of the park.
Welsh midfielder Robbie Savage was roundly booed by the Wanderers support following his part in the sendings off of two Bolton players in a Premiership match three seasons ago whilst still a Leicester City player. He did nothing to endear himself to the crowd as he commited one of many fouls on his international team mate Speed which was to earn him a caution from the referee Rob Styles.
Eight minutes before the break Bolton could have got themselves a further advantage in the game but official Styles decided to ignore a blatent trip by the former Chelsea winger Jesper Gronkjaer on Ivan Campo in the area.
The game had become more high tempo shortly before the break and this was much owing to the antics of contraversial midfielder Savage who seemed to be revelling in the occasion.
Birthday boy Ricardo Gardner had two chances late in the half to bring the Wanderers further into the lead, the first of which was an excellent long range shot which swerved narrowly wide following Campo's low free kick from the right hand side.
The Jamaican international then had another drive which was to be saved comfortably by Maik Taylor in the Blues goal to deny the wing back a chance to get off the mark for the first time in nearly two years.
Referee Styles then blew for half time with the Trotters seemingly comfortable in pole position but the second half was to be an entirely different story with Steve Bruce's team being a lot more organised than in the first period.
Both Gronkjaer and fellow winger Damien Johnson did their best to get forward for Birmingham to try and support the lone front man Heskey, often swapping wings so that both Bolton full backs Ricardo Garnder and Nicky Hunt had something to think about.
A minute after the restart though, it was another former Leicester City player in the shape of Muzzy Izzet who tested the Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen for the first time in the afternoon.
This seemed to be just a warm up of the things to come as two minutes later the Turkish international had brought the Blues back into the game with an excellent quick fire equaliser from close range after fellow midfielder Gronkjaer had managed to get in amongst the Wanderers defenders following a long clearance by goalkeeper Taylor.
On 55 minutes the referees assistant on the Nat Lofthouse side of the stadium ruled out a further Bolton goal after it was deemed that in form striker Henrik Pedersen was in an offside position. The Dane had collected a neat through pass by fellow striker Davies before firing an unstoppable shot past Taylor. Unfortunately for the attacker and the home supporters the flag was raised by assistant offical J Devine.
Birmingham to their credit kept plugging away and often frustrated Bolton by keeping the ball well and passing it around their compact midfield to good effect, quite a contrast from the side which went in dejected at the interval.
With fifteen minutes remaining the lively Gronkjaer fired over the top for the away side and was soon to be replaced by the former Blackburn Rovers star David Dunn who was making a return to action from an injury sustained during the pre-season programme.
Bolton themselves had also freshened things up with Greek midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos coming on for El-Hadji Diouf. The European Championship winner was soon involved and had already seen a half hearted penalty appeal waved away after Dutch defender Mario Melchiot seemed to block him in the area.
Captain Speed then fired just over the top for the Trotters as both sides went in search of a winning goal. The former Newcastle and Everton star had covered every blade of grass during the afternoon and deserved a goal for his efforts.
England international Emile Heskey also saw his header bounce narrowly wide of the post for Birmingham with just seconds remaining. Given the Jekyll and Hyde performance by the Wanderers it was fair to say that a draw was perhaps the most fair result but neither Sam Allardyce or his opposite number and good pal Steve Bruce will be happy with the defending for the goals.