Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Mountain Bluebird

 Mountain Bluebird
The mountain bluebird is one of three bluebird species in North America. They inhabit open range and meadows typically above 5000 feet in altitude through out the western half of the continent. Their range overlaps much of the range of the western bluebird. They typically breed from Alaska  down to New Mexico with birds in the northern part of the range migrating as far south as Mexico during the winter. They feed primarily on insects and berries and will group together in feeding flocks during the winter.
Mountain Bluebird
The mountain bluebird is a cavity nester. They will often compete for nest sites with the western bluebird. At one point their population was in decline because of habitat loss due to an increase in agriculture, however investments in nesting boxes by concerned land owners has helped to increase their numbers. The female builds the nest by herself. She will typically lay 4 to 8 eggs which she will incubate for about 2 weeks. The chicks take about 3 weeks until they fledge. While nesting both male and female will defend the nest. 



17 comments:

Connie Smiley said...

Beautiful bird, and wonderful photos! It's quite similar to our eastern bluebird, which we always love to see.

Modesto Viegas said...

Nice bird!!!
Well done!

TexWisGirl said...

so beautiful! such a pretty subtle blue hue!

Andrea @ From The Sol said...

Sweet little Blue Birds ... they do look a lot like our Eastern Blue birds, but they seem smaller. Their habits are the same though. Your pictures are wonderful. I have a few pictures of Bluebirds, but they seem very shy and are hard to get close to. Nice job :)

Andrea @ From The Sol

Roger Owen Green said...

cute bird!
ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Adam Jones said...

That first picture is amazing. Stunning bird.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Beautiful picture of a great little bird! I didn't realize there were three kinds of bluebirds -- I've seen the western and eastern.

mick said...

Beautiful bird - the blue color is so delicate.

Carole M. said...

such an amazing bird, colourwise; beautiful!

Unknown said...

Gorgeous colours - and a nice character shot

Paula Scott Molokai Girl Studio said...

Such a treat to see all the birds here and learn about them! We (sadly) do not have bluebirds here.

Kenneth Cole Schneider said...

I miss seeing those Mountain Bluebirds since moving from the mountains of New Mexico to South Florida!

Catch My Words said...

Great shots!

http://joycelansky.blogspot.com/2012/10/wordless-wednesday-what-happened-to-my.html

Joy said...

Pretty bird, interesting range, must be quite a sight to see them in winter flocks.
Joy - ABC Team

Scotkat said...

Wow amazing such a beautiful bird.

Its a real delight to see these when we never see these type of birds.

Such a joy.

Stewart M said...

Thats a great picture - Its one of those iconic birds that I would really like to see.

One day perhaps!

Thanks for linking to WBW

Stewart M - Australia

Neil said...

Beautiful shade of blue nice photos.