Mountain bluebird, the state bird of Idaho and Nevada

Two western states

The mountain bluebird is the state bird of Idaho and Nevada. Idaho chose it first, in 1931; the act used an older scientific name, Sialia arctica, updated in 2015 to Sialia currucoides. Nevada adopted the same bird in 1967.

How to recognize it

The mountain bluebird is a small, lanky thrush, about 6 to 8 inches long, with longer wings and tail than the other bluebirds. The male is sky-blue all over, a little darker on the wings and tail and paler below, and much lighter than other all-blue birds such as the indigo bunting. The female is mostly gray, with pale blue tinges in the wings and tail. Its song is a soft warble.

A hovering hunter

The mountain bluebird has a distinctive way of hunting: it often hovers low over open ground before dropping onto insects such as beetles, grasshoppers and caterpillars. It also eats berries, especially in winter, and nests in tree cavities, old woodpecker holes, nest boxes or cliff crevices.

Where it lives

The species breeds across western North America in open country with scattered trees, from prairie and sagebrush flats to mountain meadows and alpine slopes as high as 12,500 feet, and winters at lower elevations and farther south. In Nevada it nests at about 5,000 to 12,000 feet in the state’s many mountain ranges.

Doing well

The mountain bluebird is a species of least concern, with a breeding population of about 5.6 million and fairly steady numbers. Because it often nests in remote places, it competes less with starlings and other introduced birds than other bluebirds do, and nest boxes have helped where natural cavities are scarce.