Sialia mexicana
female
The Western Bluebird is a colorful songbird. The sexes are dissimilar. Adult males have blue upperparts, including the head and throat, with a well-defined separation from the orange-red breast and flanks. The otherwise white underparts are suffused blue in the center of the belly. Adult females resemble a very dull male with gray-brown upperparts, dark wings and tail with a hint of blue, an orange-red breast, and otherwise pale gray underparts. Juveniles are brown, darker above than below, and with pale spots on the upperparts and scaly-looking underparts.
The Western Bluebird is present as a breeding species in the north of its range, mainly from April to August. Farther south, it is present year-round and its winter range extends into Mexico. It perches on bare branches and wires, and nests in treeholes as well as nestboxes; it suffers from competition for nest sites with European Starlings and House Sparrows.
male
male
FACT FILE
LENGTH 7 in (18 cm)
FOOD Invertebrates and fruit
HABITAT Open woodland
STATUS Scarce summer visitor and local year-round resident
VOICE Song (sung at dawn) comprises a series of call notes, such as chuu and a disyllabic chut-et
