Western Bluebird

Male Western Bluebird presumably of the subspecies occidentalis, at Guadalupe Canyon, Baja California, MX, 31 Dec 2005.

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Western Bluebird, female

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

The Western Bluebird is a common sight in parklands of the West. Unlike the other species of bluebirds, it does not like large meadows, preferring open forests instead.

Cool Facts

• Go here to take a look at what goes on inside a Western Bluebird nestbox, through the help of a Nest Box Cam provided by The Birdhouse Network at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
• Occasionally Western Bluebirds have helpers at the nest. Most of the extra birds attending nests are helping their presumed parents, some after their own nests have failed.

• Genetic studies showed that 45% of nests had young that were not fathered by the defending male, and that 19% of all the young were fathered outside the pair bond.

• Western Bluebirds can be helped by birds far beyond family members. Violet-green Swallows have been observed feeding and defending nests of Western Bluebirds.

Description

• Size: 16-19 cm (6-7 in)
• Weight: 24-31 g (0.85-1.09 ounces)

• Medium-sized songbird; small thrush.
• Head large and round.
• Wings and tail blue.
• Chest red.
• Some reddish on back.

• Body stocky.
• Tail medium-short.
• Blue in wings and tail.
• Reddish on back variable, from smudges on the shoulders to an entirely chestnut back.
• Eyes dark brown.
• Bill black.
• Legs and feet black.

Sex Differences

Male dark blue with bright red chest. Female drab gray blue with duller reddish chest.

Male

Head, throat and upperparts bright, deep cobalt blue. Breast chestnut. Blue on belly and undertail coverts. Varying amounts of chestnut on back. Eyes dark. Legs dark.

Female

Duller and not extensively blue. Head and throat gray. Back gray-brown. Abdomen and undertail coverts grayish. Blue wings and tail. Chest duller chestnut.

Immature

Juvenile with spotted chest and back, blue in wings and tail. Immature similar to adults, but duller.

Similar Species

• Eastern Bluebird male has light or orange throat and no red extending onto back.
• Female bluebirds are all similar in appearance to one another. Eastern Bluebird has white chin, white belly contrasting with reddish on chest, and throat color extending onto side of neck.
• Mountain Bluebird has gray chest with little if any orange, longer bill, longer legs, and longer wings that nearly reach the end of the tail when folded.

Sound

Call a soft "kew," often repeated several times. Also a chatter. Songs can be repeated calls.

Range

Range Map

© 2003 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Western North America from southern British Columbia south to central Mexico, east to western Montana and west Texas, but absent from Great Basin.

Winter Range

Winters at lower elevations in much of breeding range. Also winters outside breeding range in central California and along the lower Colorado River.

Habitat

Open coniferous and deciduous woodlands, wooded riparian areas, grasslands, farmlands, and edge and burned areas.

Food

Insects in summer, fruits and seeds in winter.

Behavior

Foraging

Hunts from perches and drops onto ground to catch prey. Some flycatching and gleaning. May beat large prey against ground or branch before eating.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest in cavities in trees and snags, or between bark and trunk. Nest woven of dry grasses, straw, conifer needles, fur, string, or cedar bark strips. Uses nest boxes.

Egg Description

Pale blue and unmarked, sometimes white.

Clutch Size

Condition at Hatching

Naked and helpless with some patches of down.

Conservation Status

Declining in California and Arizona, as well as in other parts of range.

Other Names

Merleblue de l'Ouest (French)
Azulejo garganta azul (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Guinan, J. A., P. A. Gowaty, and E. K. Eltzroth. 2000. Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana). In The Birds of North America, No. 510 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.