Western Bluebirds
Although Western Bluebirds are year-round residents in southern AZ, they aren’t visible in Tucson year round. During summers here, they live at high elevations in the mountains. They are fairly common during the winter in lower elevations. Often during winters you can find them in many of our city parks and fields. I ran into a small group of Western Bluebirds recently at Reid Park.
Male Western Bluebirds, like the bird pictured above, have a blue head and an orange/rusty vest. Female Western Bluebirds are described as a dull gray-buff with a light orange wash to their body. The female bird below, in the shadows, shows little of that color.
On the ground, the Western Bluebird shows his short, thin bill. During the summers Western Bluebirds eat mainly insects. During the winters, they eat mostly seeds and fruit. Western Bluebirds can be seen in many Tucson parks due to the amount of sweet berries that the palm trees produce. You can see a few on the ground around this bird.
The female Western Bluebird kept an eye on me while searching for food. If you are curious and would like to learn a bit more about these birds, I shared a post of Western Bluebirds on my HOA’s web page in 2021. That post featured photos of a small flock of Western Bluebirds that appeared on my street . It has some nice details and information about Bluebirds that I did not repeat in today’s post.
The palm trees lining the field at Reid Park had already been stripped of most of their fruit, but this western Bluebird still had plenty to choose from. It was sharing the bounty with a male House Finch.
This close-up of the female Bluebird shows that she has a touch of blue on her wing and tail.
The House Finch’s red feathers contrasted nicely with the Bluebird’s feather color.
This Western Bluebird did find an insect of some kind. That protein was surely appreciated.
Some of my long-time readers may remember that the Bluebird’s feathers are not really blue. They are not pigmented blue but the blue color that we see is actually a trick of light. Birdnote explains here
Nicely done. I'm not seeing them at Ft. Lowell this year -- a bit of a disappointment.
Thanks for this article and lovely photos Dan. I'm glad to learn more about western bluebirds. I've been fortunate to see small groups feeding on mistletoe in Sabino Canyon, similar to what you described in your HOA article.