Mountain Bluebird

 The mountain bluebird is found in the western half of North America. They prefer open country and breed from Alaska to Arizona. The birds that breed in the northern portions of the territory migrate down as far south as southern Mexico for the winter. Birds that breed in the southwestern United States tend to stay within their range through out the entire year. They are often found at elevations above 1500 meters but will head to lower elevations during the winter.

 Like most bluebirds the mountain bluebird is a cavity nester. They share much of their range with the western bluebird and the two species compete for nesting spots such as natural tree cavities, woodpecker excavations, nesting boxes and other man made cavities. The female, pictured above, builds the nest typically out of grasses, bark, hair and feathers. The male sometimes appears to be helping with the nest but he usually does not really do much of anything.

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.

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. 

Tuesday Tweets

The mountain bluebird is found in the western half of North America. They breed from Alaska through Canada and the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. They winter in the southwestern United States, Mexico, and parts of Central America. Much of their range overlaps with the western bluebird. Mountain bluebirds and western bluebirds compete for nesting sites and will often defend their territories from one and other.

Yellowstone Part 2

With the weekend over the weather in Yellowstone began to change. We woke up Monday morning to cloudy skies but as we headed into the park some of the clouds began to break up allowing hints of blue skies to peak through.

We were hoping to see some more grizzly bears so we decided to head over to the area around Fishing Bridge and Yellowstone Lake. After checking on the bison carcass in the Yellowstone River where we had photographed the bear the day before and stopping for a bathroom break at the fishing bridge we headed out towards the east entrance to the park.
The east entrance was closed, because of the possibility of an avalanche, so we decided to hang out at Sedge Bay and see if any of the grizzlies that had been seen in the area would show up. We did not see any grizzly but while we waited we were treated to a little show by the marmots living in the rocks. There were also waterfowl down on the lake to photograph, most of which were Barrow's goldeneye.
After a while I got bored of waiting for grizzly so we went back to Fishing Bridge to eat some lunch and then headed around the northern loop of the park. When we got to Mammoth we stopped for a bit to photograph the wildlife in town. Michelle took a few pics of the resident elk herd while I focused more on photographing the mockingbirds and the mountain bluebird, pictured above.

We spent the remainder of the day out at the Tower Junction and Lamar Valley. We did see one grizzly, from quite a ways away, but mostly we photographed ungulates like bison, and their calves, bull elk and pronghorn antelope, and then headed through the park back to West Yellowstone where we were staying.The next morning the weather was even worse. Since we knew that it would be difficult to photograph in the weather we took our time getting going and hung around the hotel for a while. When we finally headed into the park we found that the weather was making it difficult to drive. In most places it was sleeting and raining but around the lake it was even worse with fog often obscuring the road.
We did find a few things to photograph, though the lighting did not make for the best pictures. This male American kestrel was perched on the side of the road near the lake eating some type of rodent in the snow. I guess he did not mind frozen food. We, on the other hand were looking for something warm to eat so we headed over to Fishing Bridge for some lunch.

At lunch we found out that a mother grizzly and cub, which had been spotted at Pelican Creek a few days earlier, had spent most of Monday out by the Lake Lodge just a few miles away from Fishing Bridge. So we decided to head over and look for her since we would have loved to get some shots of a tiny grizzly cub. We never were able to find her, but on our way back from Lake we spotted this beautiful coyote. This was one of several coyotes that we spotted on the trip but it was one of the most attractive coyotes that I have ever seen, with the light color and clean coat.
The bad weather continued on through out the day. It was the only day in the whole week were we did not really see the sun at any time. So we decided to head out of the park early and catch a nice dinner. On our way out we did spot this sandhill crane doing its best to stand up straight in the snow and the biting wind.

Mountain Bluebird

The mountain bluebird is one of three species of bluebirds found in North America. Its range is in the Rocky Mountain Region from as far north as Alaska, during the summer, down to Central America. Much of this range overlaps with the range of the western bluebird. Mountain bluebirds and western bluebirds compete for territories. On rare occasions mountain bluebirds have been spotted in Minnesota during migration or in the winter but the only time that we have had the chance to photograph them is when we take a trip to Yellowstone National Park.
Like the other bluebirds the mountain bluebird is a cavity nester. The nest is built by the female only. The male, as seen here, will often go through the motions of assisting but will not actually help in nest building. The nest is made up of grass lined with fine grass, feathers, or other soft material. The clutch consists of 4 to 8 pale blue eggs.

Mountain Bluebirds

There are three types of bluebirds that are native to North America. The eastern bluebird is the most common and has the largest range, the western bluebird, which can be found in the Eastern coastal states and down into Mexico, and the mountain bluebird, which has a range similar to the western bluebird except that is extended in the north and the east.

It is usually easy to tell the difference between the male mountain bluebirds and males of the other two types of North American bluebirds. Adult male mountain bluebirds have a blue chest with little to no rufous color. The male eastern and western bluebird have a mostly rufous colored chest.

Female mountain bluebirds come in two different color phases. There is the gray phase, which are mostly gray all over except for the blue on the wings like the one pictured above, or the rufous phase which have a rufous colored chest. The rufous phase female can be difficult because it can look at first glance like a light colored eastern or western female.

Mountain Bluebird

Mountain Bluebird

Mountain Bluebird Female

Mountain Bluebird

One of the things that we always look forward to when we travel out to Yellowstone is photographing mountain bluebirds. Once in a while an errant mountain bluebird is spotted in Minnesota during the winter but usually the only time we get a chance to photograph mountain bluebirds is when we head out west.

Mountain bluebirds are cavity nesters and are pretty creative at finding nesting spots. It is pretty common to find them nesting in the holes that you find in many of the park signs. This pair was nesting in the middle of Mammoth. Don't be fooled the male mountain bluebird looks like he might be helping to make the nest but the truth is that the female does all of the work.

The mountain bluebird shares much of its range with the western bluebird, although the mountain bluebirds range continues farther north then the western bluebird, and there is often competition between the two for territory and nesting sites. It is easy to distinguish between the two because the western bluebird has an orange chest where the mountain bluebird is all blue.

Since they do not seem to mind the cold very much they are usually one of the first birds that return to Yellowstone in the spring. That is why we have managed to see them every year that we have headed out, even the years where there is still several feet of snow on the ground and it manages to snow a couple of times while we are out there.

Yellowstone Mountain Bluebird

One of the first migratory birds to return to Yellowstone each year is the mountain bluebird. Mountain bluebirds inhabit the western half of North America and prefer open habitat.
The female mountain bluebird is mostly pale and grey in color with only a hint of the blue coloration of the male. The female builds the nest by herself, typically in a cavity or nesting box.
The males are bright blue with out the reddish coloration on their underparts that the eastern and western bluebirds exhibit. Mountain bluebirds will often compete with western bluebirds for nesting spaces and territory. In the few areas where their range overlaps that of the eastern bluebird the mountain bluebirds tend to dominate.
We spotted mountain bluebirds at locations all around the park, however the most cooperative ones that we found were hanging around the Old Faithful complex.