Sialia currucoides
Mountain Bluebirds are small, bright sky-blue colored thrushes found primarily in Western North America. The males have light blue heads, backs and wings that are a darker blue, the bellies are pale blue and under the tail is white. The females are duller in coloration than the males.
It is always lovely to have a male Mountain Bluebird like this one I found in the West Desert in my viewfinder because they rival the color of the sky overhead.
Two days ago while I was high in the Wasatch Mountains this adult male Mountain Bluebird landed close enough for me to take photos of him.
I spent some time wandering in the West Desert yesterday morning and the only decent bird photos that I took were of this male Mountain Bluebird.
This morning I wanted to keep my post short and sweet and sharing juvenile Mountain Bluebird images is pretty sweet I think.
I haven't had many bluebirds in my viewfinder this spring so when this adult male Mountain Bluebird perched on mullein showed up last week I was happy to photograph it.
I woke up this morning dreaming of Mountain Bluebirds so I thought I would share two images of them from previous springs.
I thought this male Mountain Bluebird photographed on the Aquarius Plateau in Wayne County, Utah positively glowed in the early morning light.
This is my 2020 photographic year in review. I'm selecting some of my favorite photos from 2020 and a few that just make me happy to see them.
This male Mountain Bluebird seemed to glow in the early morning light which was in sharp contrast with the shadows on the mountains in the background.
I was happy to have these juvenile Mountain Bluebirds in my viewfinder yesterday and to be able to listen to their soft calls high on the sagebrush dotted hillside.
The Mountain Bluebird families I saw didn't stay close to the road and my best images were taken of this fledgling as it perched on an old metal post.
As I went through the images I took four years ago this photo of a female Mountain Bluebird perched on an old fence post with prey for her young in her bill stood out to me.
Imagine my surprise when through my viewfinder I could see that the female Mountain Bluebird had landed on a Swiss Army knife that was stuck into the bark of one of the trees.
Yesterday I had a blast photographing a pair of Mountain Bluebirds at a natural nesting cavity at the edge of a forest along with some other woodland birds.
I can't imagine not seeing these beautiful Mountain Bluebirds feeding, breeding and raising their young in the mountains that are close to where I live.
Our current climate crisis could mean Utah might lose our Mountain Bluebirds and it is not just us, it is Idaho, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming that will also be affected if action isn't taken now.
I dug through my older files and found this photo of a fledgling Mountain Bluebird perched on a wire fence that I photographed in July of 2017 up in Montana's Centennial Valley.
This juvenile Mountain Bluebird was hunting for food its own, perching on sagebrush and then diving to the ground after prey.
Last month I had a few opportunities to photograph juvenile Mountain Bluebirds in a Wasatch Mountain canyon while they were being fed by adults and as they learned to hunt on their own.
Luck was on my side when I found the family of Mountain Bluebirds in good light plus they were close enough to take quality photos of them, first the male then the female and the juveniles.
After a bit the female Mountain Bluebird did something surprising... She flew in so close that I could only take close ups of her as she appeared to forage at the edge of the dirt road.
Today's post is just a simple bird. A sky blue Mountain Bluebird perched on a rustic pine fence railing taken on a bright beautiful morning in the Centennial Valley of Montana.
The young Mountain Bluebird turned and snatched the cricket from the male quickly before any of its siblings could reach the branches.
Two years ago today I was in the Targhee National Forest of Clark County, Idaho photographing birds at what I called the "Magical Sapsucker Tree".
The gray skies are getting old and I'm suffering from cabin fever and wishing for some bright bluebird skies to get out to photograph birds and to be able to relax and soak in nature.
This photo of a male Mountain Bluebird in Wayne County, Utah made me smile when I thought about the location where it was created because it is so wild and beautiful up there.
I was also delighted to photograph this juvenile Mountain Bluebird on the way to Gravelly Range early in the morning.
These images from different times of the year show Mountain Bluebird plumage development stages from not long after fledging to adulthood.
This young Mountain Bluebird chick was photographed last summer at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Montana.
Well, it was another fun morning at the Magical Sapsucker Tree and today the cast was joined by a pair of Mountain Bluebirds who seem dead set on taking over the Northern Flicker cavity.