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  Profile

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  In flight

Songbirds

Mountain Bluebird

Sialia currucoides

• rare
• 55 km/h
• Least Concern

Pure sky-blue from beak to tail. Hovers over sagebrush like a falling piece of summer.

Population

~4.6 million (Partners in Flight global estimate)

Habitat

Open country — mountain meadows, grasslands, sagebrush steppe, and burned or cut-over forest edges, often with scattered trees for perching and cavity-nesting; shifts to open juniper woodland in winter

Fun fact

The Mountain Bluebird is the official state bird of both Idaho and Nevada.

Range

Western North America, breeding from Alaska and western Canada south through the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin to the southwestern US; winters from the western US south into central Mexico

Diet

Mostly insects (grasshoppers, beetles, spiders) caught by hovering or from perches in summer; shifts substantially to berries and fruit (juniper, mistletoe, elderberry) in winter

Size

0.17 m

Wingspan

0.32 m

Lifespan

10 years