Birds
Mountain Bluebird
Sialia currucoides · also called mountain bluebirds
Hovering briefly over an open mountain meadow, a mountain bluebird spots movement below and drops down to catch an insect, a hunting technique that sets it apart from its eastern and western relatives even more than its paler sky-blue colouration does.
Overview
The mountain bluebird, Sialia currucoides, is a paler, sky-blue songbird native to open mountain meadows, prairie, and other high, open country across a broad range of western North America. Its distinctive hovering hunting technique, tolerance for cooler high-elevation and high-latitude conditions, and complete dependence on existing cavities for nesting make it one of the more behaviourally distinctive members of the bluebird group.
A bluebird that hunts on the wing
Rather than relying only on a fixed perch to sally from, the mountain bluebird’s habit of hovering over open ground gives it a hunting style all its own among the three closely related North American bluebirds.
Status
Least Concern — widespread and stable across suitable open mountain and prairie habitat throughout western North America.
Mountain Bluebird: common questions
How is the mountain bluebird different from the eastern and western bluebirds?
A male of this species displays a paler, sky-blue colouration overall and lacks the rusty breast patch typical of its close relatives, and this species also more frequently hunts by hovering in place over open ground before dropping onto prey, a technique less commonly used by the eastern and western bluebirds.
Why does the mountain bluebird hover while hunting?
This species frequently hovers in place over open ground to spot insects before dropping down to catch them, a hunting technique well suited to the high, open, often sparsely perched country it favours, where a fixed sallying perch is not always readily available the way it might be in more wooded bluebird habitat.
Does the mountain bluebird build its own nest cavity?
No, like other bluebirds, this species cannot excavate its own nest hole and instead depends on old woodpecker cavities, natural hollows, or nest boxes provided by people, a dependence shared broadly across the bluebird group.
How far north does the mountain bluebird breed?
This species breeds farther north into Alaska than either the eastern or western bluebird, tolerating cooler high-latitude and high-elevation conditions better than its close relatives, extending the overall bluebird group's range considerably farther into colder territory.