View source for Bluebird

{{Short description|Genus of birds}}
{{About|the animal|other uses}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name = Bluebirds
| image = Eastern Bluebird, crop.jpg
| image_caption = A male Eastern bluebird in [[Texas]]
| taxon = Sialia
| authority = [[William Swainson|Swainson]], 1827
| type_species = ''[[Eastern bluebird|Motacilla sialis]]''
| type_species_authority = [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]], 1758
| subdivision_ranks = Species 
| subdivision = 
*[[Mountain bluebird]] ''S. currucoides''
*[[Western bluebird]] ''S. mexicana''
*[[Eastern bluebird]] ''S. sialis''
}}

The '''bluebirds''' are a [[North America]]n<ref name="nwf">{{cite web | url=http://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/1993/What-About-the-Other-Bluebirds | title=What About the Other Bluebirds? | website=[[National Wildlife Federation]] | date=1993-02-01}}</ref> group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous [[passerine]] [[bird]]s in the genus '''''Sialia''''' of the [[thrush (bird)|thrush]] family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the [[Americas]].

Bluebirds lay an average of 4 to 6 eggs per clutch. They will usually brood two or three times in a year. Bluebirds nest from March all the way through August.

Bluebirds have blue, or blue and rose beige, plumage. Female birds are [[Sexual dimorphism in birds|less brightly colored]] than males, although color patterns are similar and there is no noticeable difference in size.

== Taxonomy and species ==

The [[genus]] ''Sialia'' was introduced by the English naturalist [[William Swainson]] in 1827 with the eastern bluebird (''Sialia sialis'') as the [[type species]].<ref>{{ cite journal | last=Swainson | first=William | author-link=William Swainson | year=1827 | title=A synopsis of the birds discovered in Mexico by W. Bullock, F.L.S. and Mr. William Bullock jun. | journal=Philosophical Magazine | series=New Series | volume=1 | pages=364–369 [369] | doi=10.1080/14786442708674330 | url=https://zenodo.org/record/2262785 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Paynter | editor2-first=Raymond A. Jr | year=1964 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=10 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology  | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts  | page=83 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14486272 }}</ref> A molecular phylogenetic study using mitochondrial sequences published in 2005 found that ''Sialia'', ''[[Myadestes]]'' (solitaires) and ''[[Neocossyphus]]'' (African ant-thrushes) formed a basal [[clade]] in the family Turdidae. Within ''Sialia'' the mountain bluebird was [[sister taxon|sister]] to the eastern bluebird.<ref>{{ cite journal | last1=Klicka | first1=J. | last2=Voelker | first2=G. | last3=Spellman | first3=G.M. | year=2005 | title=A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the "true thrushes" (Aves: Turdinae) | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution  | volume=34 | issue=3 | pages=486–500 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2004.10.001 | pmid=15683924 }}</ref>

The genus contains three species:<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | year=2020 | title=Thrushes | work=IOC World Bird List Version 10.2 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/thrushes/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=10 September 2020 }}</ref>

{{Species table |genus= Sialia |authority-name=[[William Swainson|Swainson]] |authority-year=1827 |species-count=three|no-note=y|narrow-percent=75}}

{{Species table/row
|name= Mountain bluebird|binomial=[[Sialia currucoides]]
|image=File:Mountain Bluebird.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=|image-caption=Male
|image2=File:Mountain Bluebird 8774vv.jpg|image2-caption=Female
|authority-name=Bechstein |authority-year=1798 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= Western North America
|range-image=File:Sialia currucoides distribution.png
|range-image-size=180px
|size={{cvt|15.5|-|18|cm}}
|habitat=ubiquitous in mountain environments, but also in open country
|hunting=various arthropods in summer and a variety of fruit in winter
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies=
}}

{{Species table/row
|name=Western bluebird |binomial=[[Sialia mexicana]]
|image=File:Western Bluebird - Rancho San Antonio Preserve - Northern California, USA.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=|image-caption=Male
|image2=File:060319 western bluebird female simon wray odfw (50092192482).jpg|image2-caption=Female
|authority-name=Swainson |authority-year=1832 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= California, the southern Rocky Mountains, Arizona, and New Mexico in the United States, and as far south as the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz in Mexico
|range-image=File:Sialia mexicana distribution.png
|range-image-size=180px
|size= {{cvt|15|-|18|cm}}
|habitat= light woodland, but has adapted to coniferous forests, farmlands, semi-open terrain, and desert
|hunting= omnivorous, including aerial and terrestrial insects
|iucn-status= LC
|population= 
|direction= 
|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Six subspecies |bullets=on
| ''S. m. occidentalis'' [[John Kirk Townsend|Townsend, JK]], 1837
| ''S. m. bairdi'' [[Robert Ridgway|Ridgway]], 1894 
| ''S. m. jacoti'' [[Allan Robert Phillips|Phillips, AR]], 1991 
| ''S. m. amabilis'' [[Robert Thomas Moore|Moore, RT]], 1939 
| ''S. m. nelsoni'' Phillips, AR, 1991 
| ''S. m. mexicana'' [[William Swainson|Swainson]], 1832
}}
}}

{{Species table/row
|name=Eastern bluebird |binomial=[[Sialia sialis]]
|image=File:Eastern Bluebird - Texas H8O6505 (17048714229), crop.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=|image-caption=Male
|image2=File:Sialia sialis -Michigan, USA -female-8.jpg|image2-caption=Female
|authority-name=Linnaeus |authority-year=1758 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= East-central southern Canada to the [[Gulf Coast of the United States|US Gulf states]], and southeastern Arizona to Nicaragua
|range-image=File:Sialia sialis distribution.png
|range-image-size=180px
|size={{convert|16|-|21|cm|in|abbr=on}}
|habitat=open country around trees, with little understory and sparse ground cover, expanded range to human-altered habitats
|hunting= mainly insects and other invertebrates, but also fruit and berries
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Seven subspecies |bullets=on
| ''S. s. sialis'' (Linnaeus, 1758) 
| ''S. s. bermudensis'' [[Alpheus Hyatt Verrill|Verrill, AH]], 1901 
| ''S. s. nidificans'' [[Allan Robert Phillips|Phillips, AR]], 1991 
| ''S. s. fulva'' [[William Brewster (ornithologist)|Brewster]], 1885 
| ''S. s. guatemalae'' [[Robert Ridgway|Ridgway]], 1882 
| ''S. s. meridionalis'' [[Donald Ryder Dickey|Dickey]] & [[Adriaan Joseph van Rossem|Van Rossem]], 1930 
| ''S. s. caribaea'' Howell, TR, 1965
}}
}}

{{Species table/end}}

==Behavior==
[[File:Mountainbluebird30.JPG|thumb|300px|right|upright=0.6|Mountain bluebird]]
Bluebirds are territorial and prefer open grassland with scattered trees. This is similar to the behavior of many species of [[woodpeckers]]. Bluebirds can typically produce between two and four broods during the spring and summer (March through August in the [[Northeastern United States]]). Males identify potential nest sites and try to attract prospective female mates to those nesting sites with special behaviors that include singing and flapping wings, and then placing some material in a nesting box or cavity. If the female accepts the male and the nesting site, she alone builds the nest and incubates the eggs.

Predators of young bluebirds in the nests can include snakes, cats, and raccoons. Bird species competing with bluebirds for nesting locations include the [[common starling]], [[American crow]], and [[house sparrow]], which take over the nesting sites of bluebirds, killing young, smashing eggs, and probably killing adult bluebirds.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/jfo/v055n03/p0378-p0380.pdf |title=House Sparrows Kill Eastern Bluebirds|jstor=4512922|author=Gowaty, Patricia Adair |journal=Journal of Field Ornithology|volume =55|issue=3|year=1984|pages=378–380}}</ref>

[[File:Western bluebird (male).jpg|thumb|300px|Male western bluebird]]
Bluebirds are attracted to platform bird feeders, filled with grubs of the darkling beetle, sold by many online bird product wholesalers as [[mealworm]]s. Bluebirds will also eat raisins soaked in water. In addition, in winter bluebirds use backyard heated birdbaths.

By the 1970s, bluebird numbers had declined by estimates ranging to 70% due to unsuccessful competition with [[house sparrow]]s and [[starlings]], both [[introduced species]], for nesting cavities, coupled with a decline in habitat. In late 2005, Cornell University's [[Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology|Laboratory of Ornithology]] reported bluebird sightings across the southern U.S. as part of its yearly [[National Audubon Society|Backyard Bird Count]], a strong indication of the bluebird's return to the region. This upsurge can be attributed largely to a movement of volunteers establishing and maintaining bluebird trails.


== In the garden ==
Bluebirds' consumption of insects make them popular with gardeners.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theselfsufficientgardener.com/episode-109-bluebirds |title=The Self-Sufficient Gardener Episode 109 Bluebirds|publisher=Theselfsufficientgardener.com |date=2011-07-20 |access-date=2012-06-16}}</ref>

==In culture==
===Iroquois===
In traditional [[Iroquois]] cosmology, the call of the bluebird is believed to ward off the icy power of [[Iroquois mythology#The Do-yo-da-no|Sawiskera]], also referred to as Flint, the spirit of the winter. Its call caused Sawiskera to flee in fear and the ice to recede.<ref>Canadian Climate of Mind: Passages from Fur to Energy and Beyond By Timothy B. Leduc p.192-195</ref>

=== As a symbol in songs ===
"[[Bluebird of Happiness (song)|Bluebird of Happiness]]" is a song composed in 1934 by Sandor Harmati, with words by Edward Heyman and additional lyrics by Harry Parr-Davies.

"[[(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover]]" was composed in 1941 by [[Walter Kent]] to lyrics by Nat Burton looking forward to a time when [[World War II]] would be over. Burton was unaware that the bluebird was not indigenous to England. [[Vera Lynn]] popularised the song with her performances to the troops.

"[[Bluebird (Buffalo Springfield song)|Bluebird]]" is a song written by [[Stephen Stills]] and recorded by the rock band [[Buffalo Springfield]] in 1967. It contains the lyrics "There she sits aloft at perch. Strangest color blue."

==See also==
* [[Bluebird of happiness]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links |wikt=bluebird |commons=Sialia |commonscat=yes |n=no |q=Bluebirds |s=no |b=no |v=no |species=Sialia
}}
*[http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Bluebird/id Eastern Bluebird] at All About Birds, The Cornell Lab—descriptions, including range, calls and physical description
*[http://ibc.lynxeds.com/family/thrushes-turdidae Thrush videos] on the Internet Bird Collection
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120904060252/http://www.nabluebirdsociety.org/ North American Bluebird Society] 
* [http://www.sialis.org Sialis]—Information on bluebirds and their conservation and restoration.

{{Passerida|M.|state=collapsed}}
{{portalbar|Birds|Animals|Biology}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q853286}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Bluebirds| ]]
[[Category:Birds of North America]]
[[Category:Taxa named by William Swainson]]