Western Bluebird
Learn to identify the Western Bluebird by ear. Master the "cheer, churr-lee" phrase and tell it apart from similar species.
What the Western Bluebird sounds like
A quiet run of mellow pew and chuck notes, sometimes joined into a short, subdued warble—soft enough to disappear under everyday background noise.
How to tell it apart
Where you'll hear it
Found year-round along the Pacific Coast states and parts of the Southwest. Breeds throughout the West from California to the Rocky Mountain states and southwest Canada. Northern and high-elevation populations migrate to lower elevations or south for winter. In winter they can form flocks in the lowlands of the West and Southwest, occasionally wandering to the Great Plains.
Open woodlands, woodland edges, and scrubby clearings in the West. They favor areas with at least some trees for nesting cavities but with open ground for foraging. Common in pine-oak woodlands, ponderosa pine forests, and along woodland edges of meadows. They also use farmlands, orchards, and even desert washes with scattered mesquites in winter.
In spring, Western Bluebirds return early (they're short-distance or altitudinal migrants, often arriving in February/March). Males sing and display to establish territories – you might see them fluttering in front of nest cavities showing off their blue and orange to females. Through summer they breed, often having two broods. By fall, they gather in small flocks and feed on abundant berries, sometimes hundreds concentrating in juniper berry crops. Many move to lower elevations or to the southern parts of their range in winter, where flocks roam fields and open woods.
How to recognize it by sight
A small thrush with a vivid royal blue and rusty-orange plumage in males. The male Western Bluebird has a bright blue head, back, and throat, and a rusty orange chest and sides with a grayish belly. Females are gray-buff with touches of blue in the wings and tail, and a subdued orange wash on the breast. Both sexes have thin black bills and posture upright on wires or low branches.
Similar species
Eastern Bluebird
Male Eastern has an orange throat and white belly, versus Western's blue throat and gray belly. Female Eastern is more buffy overall with a whitish belly, whereas female Western is grayer with a dull orange breast and gray belly.
Mountain Bluebird
Male Mountain Bluebird is entirely sky-blue with no orange at all, and is a bit larger with a thinner bill. Female Mountain is pale gray with only a faint bluish tinge on wings and tail – she lacks any orange on the breast (Western females have orangish tint).