enlarge + Mountain Bluebird, male © Larry Ditto

Perching Birds

Mountain Bluebird  Sialia currucoides

Family: Thrushes, Turdidae

Audio: Martyn Stewart, © Naturesound.org

An estimated 6% of the species' North American population breeds within the Boreal Forest.

Description  7" (18 cm). Male pure sky-blue above, paler blue below, with a white abdomen; female similar, but duller and grayer.

Habitat  Breeds in high mountain meadows with scattered trees and bushes; in winter descends to lower elevations, where it occurs on plains and grasslands.

Nesting  5 or 6 pale blue eggs in a nest of grass and plant fibers built in a natural cavity or bird box.

Voice  Soft warbling notes.

Range  Breeds from southern Alaska, Mackenzie, and Manitoba south to western Nebraska, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California. Winters from British Columbia and Montana south through western United States.

Discussion  This species has longer wings and a more graceful, swallow-like flight than the Eastern Bluebird. Mountain Bluebirds usually travel in small parties. They frequently hover low over the ground and drop down to catch insects, or dart out from a branch, flycatcher fashion, and then return to another perch.