Mountain Bluebird

Scientific name: Sialia currucoides

Characteristics: Male mountain bluebirds are a sky-blue color on their uppersides and paler blue below with a whiteish belly. Females are dusky-gray overall, with a whiteish belly and gray flanks and pale blue on their wings and tail feathers. At 7¼ inches long, these thrush family members have thin, dark bills.

Range: Found throughout the western half of the United States and Canadian provinces during the breeding season, mountain bluebirds migrate to the southwestern U.S. or Mexico in winter, when their range may be unpredictable.

Breeding: Cavity-nesters, bluebirds use abandoned woodpecker holes for nest sites. They also nest in natural cavities, nest boxes or in buildings.

Habitat: These birds inhabit open range, meadows, juniper woodlands, burned over forests and alpine tundra.

Food: Flying insects, beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, spiders, small berries and seeds make up their diet.

Bird facts: Bluebirds might hover hunt for insects or swoop down on them from an elevated perch. These birds might have one or two broods a season, raising five or six young. The female builds a cup-shaped nest of grass and other plants inside the cavity or nest box and lines it with soft bark, fur, feathers or grasses. The bluebirds might also compete with other secondary cavity-nesters such as tree swallows, house wrens or starlings for the nest location. In locations devoid of nest sites, a bluebird box trail may be used with numerous boxes placed on posts in one area. Mountain bluebirds are the state birds of Nevada and Idaho. A flock of thrushes is called a “hermitage.”

Current Viewing: China Hat, Lake Billy Chinook and the Hatfield Ponds.

— Damian Fagan is a volunteer with the East Cascades Audubon Society. He can be reached at damian.fagan@hotmail.com.

Sources: Oregon Department of Wildlife Resources, All About Birds website and The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds by John Terres.