Guide to Boreal Birds
Perching Birds Overview
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. The Mountain Bluebird is also the state bird of Idaho and Nevada.
Description
7" (18 cm). Male pure sky-blue above, paler blue below, with a white abdomen; female similar, but duller and grayer.
Voice
Soft warbling notes.
Nesting
5 or 6 pale blue eggs in a nest of grass and plant fibers built in a natural cavity or bird box.
Habitat
Breeds in high mountain meadows with scattered trees and bushes; in winter descends to lower elevations, where it occurs on plains and grasslands.
Range/Migration
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.