Western Bluebirds in the Desert: Peace, Hope and Happiness for 2025!

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This post is  a Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year post all wrapped up into one!  In celebration of the holidays, I will look at Western Bluebirds, and delve into how the various species of blue birds throughout our world have come to be associated with the spirit of peace, hope, and happiness over thousands of years. But first, a callout to the park where I shot most of these photos in recent days.

Agua Caliente Park is a Pima County park on the far east side of Tucson in the Tanque Verde Valley. For more on the park and prior posts see Mt Lemmon AZ Images Search: Agua Caliente. 

The park has recently benefited from a series of restorations: First the ponds, then areas of fire damage from a lightening strike in 2022. Below on the left, a view of the new bridge to a small island on the restored Pond 1, nearest the ranch house and parking lot.  Below to the right, Pond 1 looking southwest from the island. A great place for egrets and herons, with occasional Harris's Hawks flying through looking for lunch! 

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Below are images of Pond 2, a short walk west from Pond 1. The photograph on the left is a view toward the Catalina Mountains, and to the right a view looking west. Pond 2 has a lot of Mesquite Trees around it that fortunately (for the birds) are parasitized by Mistletoe, a great source of berries in the winter. It is here that I recently found dozens of Western Bluebirds feeding on berries. 

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And now, Western Bluebirds!

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A male Western Bluebird with characteristic solid blue head and throat, with rusty red breast, gray belly, and bright blue wings.  December 7, 2024. 
Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm with 1.4x Ext. at 700mm, 1/1200 sec.,/10, ISO 800, +0.33 EV. 

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Western Bluebirds (WEBL's) are small thrushes that live in the western United States and central Mexico. They are medium distance migrants, often living in one area year round.

In SE Arizona Western Bluebirds breed on the sky islands, including Mt. Lemmon, and winter at lower elevations, including Tucson. In the summer they eat insects, but during the winter switch to fruit and seeds. This dietary flexibility  allows the bird to stay in one locale throught the year, in contrast to most warblers whose unwavering insect diet requires them to "follow the food" south into Mexico each fall. ​

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Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm at 428mm, 1/2000 sec., f/6.3, ISO 1000, +0.33 EV. 

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The Western Bluebird above and below is likely an immature male, with blue on the throat and head mixed with some paler feathers. In December we may see a lot of immature birds, less than  a year old, with indeterminate plumage, as well as typical males and females.

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The bird below is likely a juvenile female with some blue on the head but a gray throat. 

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Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/2000 sec., f/7.1, ISO 1000, +0.33 EV. 

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Below, a more typical mature female with a gray head. 

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Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm with 1.4 Ext. at 599mm, 1/1250 sec., f/10, ISO 1250, +0 EV. 

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In the flight sequence that follows we can see the gray head and undersurface of the wings. The gray will look slightly blue in some light.

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In the images above and below, there is some some hint of blue on the dorsal wing feathers, with a flash of blue on the tail.

During my limited time observing WEBL's at Agua Caliente over 3 days, I noticed that they would take flight to move to new sections of a tree, rather than the progressive hopping common among warblers.  The bird in this sequence has relocated to a higher part of this mesquite. 

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For reference, below are a male and a female Western Bluebird photographed in central Tucson on December 6, 2022. This side to side comparison clearly shows the differences in coloration of the mature male vs. the female. 

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Canon R6, RF 100-500mm at 500mm w/ 1.4 Ext., at 700mm, 1/2000 sec., f/10, ISO 10000, +1.67 EV. 

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In bright light, a male WEBL is a startling blue!  Below, a male on Mt. Lemmon staking out his claim, April 28, 2024. April is the peak of their breeding season and he may have a nest nearby. 

Birds do not have blue pigment in their feathers. Instead, structural properties of the feathers make them blue. The Western Bluebird's blue feathers have a spongy matrix of microscopic air pockets. These pockets or channels are at a fixed standard distance to each other so that light waves reflected off of the pockets will reinforce for the blue spectrum, and cancel out other wavelengths. The feather will look blue from any angle of reflected light, but if held up to transmitted light it will look gray.  (Ref: David Allen Sibley, What It's Like to be a Bird, Knopf, N.Y., 2020, p.133)

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Canon R6, RF 100-500mm w/ 1.4 Ext., at 700mm, 1/1250 sec., f/10, ISO 2500, +0 EV. 

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The image below is of a mature female at Rose Canyon Lake,  May 14, 2020.  She likely has a nest near by. 

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Canon 7D Mk II, EF 100-400mm w/ 1.4x Ext. at 560mm, 1/800, ISO 1600, +0.67 EV. 

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Below, a female Western Bluebird close to Loma Linda Extension Road in Summerhaven, June 19, 2022. She may be wet from a morning bath in the creek! 

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Canon R6, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/1600 sec., f/8, ISO 5000, +0.33 EV. 

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Below, on the same day and location, a female feeding her hatchlings. We can see blue on her flight and tail feathers.

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Canon R6, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/1600 sec., f/8.0, ISO 10000, +0.33 EV. 

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Western Bluebirds are cavity nesters, favoring pre-existing holes in pine, oak, aspen, willow, cottonwood, and sycamore. Natural tree holes or previous-years' woodpecker holes are often used. They readily take to nest boxes, as we see above, which are helpful in locations where tree holes are in short supply. Residents in Summerhaven often put out tree boxes, which help to extend nesting options and help species numbers. (Ref: All About Birds).

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The photograph below is a juvenile with spotting on the back and streaking on the breast, captured on Incinerator Ridge, on Mt Lemmon, July 10, 2016.  In Arizona nest building is in April, fledging is in late May to mid-June. This is likely a recent fledgling. (Ref: Birds of the World). 

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Canon 7D Mk II, Sigma 150-600mm at 600mm, 1/1600 sec., f/7.1, ISO 1250, +0 EV. 

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In the summer Western Bluebirds eat mostly insects, but in the winter switch to fruit and seeds. One of their winter staples are the berries of mistletoe, an evergreen shrub that grows in clumps and balls on trees which the mistletoe parasitize for water and nutrients. Because mistletoe is considered a pest, many homeowners will remove the plant from trees, decreasing food availability for birds, including Western Bluebirds and Phainopepla. However, at Agua Caliente the mistletoe persists and makes a great December buffet!  

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Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/1600 sec., f/7.1, ISO 2000, +0.67 EV. 

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Above, two Western Bluebirds literally "hang-out" on mistletoe at eye-level adjacent to one of the paved paths next to Pond 2. The bird on the right is clearly a mature male, the one on the left probably a juvenile male or female. 

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Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/2000 sec., f/7.1, ISO 3200, +0.67 EV. 

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In the images above and below, a male Western Bluebird grabs a mistletoe berry and scarfs it down! 

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In the series below a Western Bluebird puts on a show while grabbing a berry.  In the last two frames the variation in color on the flight feathers may be due to the difference between reflected and transmitted light. Where the feathers overlap there is less transmission and more reflection, creating a deeper blue. 

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Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/2000 sec., f/7.1, ISO 1250, +0.33 EV. 

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Next, "the Blue Bird of Happiness . . . . ."

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Blue birds have been associated with hope and happiness in myth and folklore dating back to the Shang dynasty, 1766-1122 BC, in pre-modern China (Ref: Wikipedia, Blue Bird of happiness). In Native American Folklore, the blue bird is considered a spirit in animal form, associated with the rising sun. In Russian fairy tales the blue bird is a symbol of hope.  The "blue bird of happiness" features in Lorraine (a region of NE France) folklore, inspiring stories, plays,  novels, and at least seven films between 1910 and 2002.

The list of references to bluebirds in modern popular culture includes the Wizard of Oz ("Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly"),  the Beatles Yellow Submarine (the chief blue meanie claims his "cousin is the bluebird of happiness"),  the Allman Brother Band's song Blue Sky, ("Don't fly, mister blue bird, I'm just walking down the road"), and in a cartoon from Gary Larson, (the [absent] bluebird of happiness is mentioned as counterpart of the "chicken of depression.")  For much, much more, see Wikipedia, Bluebird of happiness. 

So, may the Western Bluebird, and in fact all blue birds, be your companions in 2025, bringing you peace and well being throughout the year! 

Special thanks to Jeff Babson for his help in identifying the sexes of this mix of winter birds!  Greatly appreciated! 

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That's all for now!
​Stay safe and stay well.

​More soon! 

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