Eastern Bluebird

Range: Eastern Bluebirds are year-round residents in the southern United States. They typically begin nesting as early as January in the south and in March in the northern United States and southern Canada. They are also found in parts of Mexico, Central America, and Bermuda.

Field marks: Males are bright blue above and rusty orange below with a white belly. Females look similar but have a blue-gray back and lighter orange underparts. Both sexes are seven inches long and stout-billed. In flight, look for short blue wings and tail.

Feeding: Eastern Bluebirds feed on ground-dwelling insects, including beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, which they can spot while perched as far as 150 feet away. They pounce upon their insect prey, then fly to a perch and strike it against a hard surface before feeding—or they just catch and eat insects in the air. Adults also feed juicy, high-protein spiders to nestlings. Wild berries are also eaten, especially in colder months. At feeders, offer raisins, currants, suet mixes, and mealworms (live or freeze-dried). 
Yuck.

Range: Western Bluebirds are found in southwestern Canada, Mexico, and many western U.S. states. They are medium- to short-distance migrants that winter in the southern part of their range and begin nesting in early April.

Field Marks: Adult males have cobalt blue wings and tails as well as an all-blue head, chin, and throat, and a white belly. The upper breast is chestnut with varying pat-terns of blue and gray. The back may be partly or entirely chestnut. Females are a paler, grayer version of the male.

Feeding: Western Bluebirds eat insects in warm weather, and fruits and berries in winter. Mistletoe and juniper berries are favorites, and they love mealworms at feeders. They are often seen “fly catching” or foraging on the ground, using low branches as a jumping-off place.

Range: Mountain Bluebirds are found primarily in the western mountains from east-central Alaska to south-central Mexico, migrating to the northern parts of their range to begin nesting in late April.

Field Marks: Breeding males have a turquoise-blue back, a paler blue breast, and white belly and under tail coverts. Females and juveniles are gray above and have pale blue wings and tail and a buffy chest. The adults are slightly larger and thinner-billed than other bluebirds; their wings are proportionately longer than the other bluebird species.

Feeding: Mountain Bluebirds feed on insects, including weevils, wasps, beetles, bees, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and crickets. They often “hover hunt” when foraging, or hunt from low perches before dropping or darting upward to capture prey. In late winter, they rely on native berries of mistletoe, hackberries, juniper, and hollies.

Is there any sign of spring quite so welcome as the glint of the first bluebird unless it is his softly whistled song? No wonder the bird has become the symbol for happiness. Before the farmer begins to plough the wet earth, often while snow is still on the ground, this hardy little minstrel is making himself very much at home in our orchards and gardens while waiting for a mate to arrive from the South. 
-Neltje Blanchan

The love-making of the bluebird is as beautiful as the bird itself, and normally as gentle, unless interrupted by some jealous rival who would steal his bride; then gentleness gives place to active combat. The male usually arrives a few days ahead of the female, selects what he considers to be a suitable summer home, and carols his sweetest, most seductive notes day after day until she appears in answer to his call. 
-Arthur Cleveland Bent

Blue skies Smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies Do I see
Bluebirds Singing a song
Nothing but bluebirds 
All day long
-Irving Berlin

If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature -if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you -know that the morning and spring of your life are past.
-Henry David Thoreau

Late at night when the wind is still
I'll come flying through your door
And you'll know what love is for.
I am a bluebird
-Paul McCartney

When nature made the blue-bird she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast
-John Burroughs

The bluebird is well named, for he wears a coat of the purest, richest, and most gorgeous blue on back, wings, and tail; no North American bird better deserves the name, for no other flashes before our admiring eyes so much brilliant blue.
- Arthur Cleveland Bent

-Vintage Greeting Card graphics downloads will be on this page

*Adapted from information provided by Audobon