Field guide · 9 birds
Blue in birds comes from feather structure, not pigment, which is why a blue jay or an indigo bunting can look almost black in poor light.
Size and shape sort them quickly: jays are big and crested, bluebirds are small thrushes with rusty breasts, and buntings are sparrow-sized seed-eaters.
| Bird | Group | Colors | Habitat | Region | Length | Wingspan | Diet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Bluebird | Thrushes | Blue, Orange, White | Grassland | Eastern | 7 in | 11 in | Insects |
| Mountain Bluebird | Thrushes | Blue | Grassland | Western | 7 in | 13 in | Insects |
| Indigo Bunting | Cardinals & allies | Blue | Grassland | Eastern | 4.9 in | 8 in | Seeds |
| Blue Jay | Jays & crows | Blue, White, Black | Backyards | Eastern | 11 in | 15 in | Omnivore |
| Steller's Jay | Jays & crows | Blue, Black | Forest | Western | 13 in | 17 in | Omnivore |
| California Scrub-Jay | Jays & crows | Blue, Gray, White | Backyards | Western | 11 in | 15 in | Omnivore |
| Barn Swallow | Swallows | Blue, Orange | Grassland | Nationwide | 7 in | 12 in | Insects |
| Tree Swallow | Swallows | Blue, White | Wetlands | Nationwide | 5 in | 13 in | Insects |
| Belted Kingfisher | Kingfishers | Blue, White | Wetlands | Nationwide | 12 in | 21 in | Fish |
The eastern bluebird is a small thrush of farm country and open woods, the male a deep royal blue above with a rusty breast. It is the state bird of Missouri and New York, and one of the great backyard conservation stories: when natural nest holes disappeared in the 20th century, volunteers with nest boxes helped bring it back.
Read the full guide →The mountain bluebird is the bluebird of the open West, a slim thrush whose males are sky-blue from crown to tail. It hunts by hovering over sagebrush and alpine meadows, nests from Alaska to New Mexico, and is the state bird of both Idaho and Nevada.
Read the full guide →The indigo bunting is a sparrow-sized songbird of the cardinal family, and in summer the male is one of the bluest things in North America. It sings from roadside wires and brushy edges across the East, migrates at night by the stars, and winters from southern Florida and Mexico to northern South America.
Read the full guide →The Blue Jay is the loud, crested blue-and-white jay of eastern and central North America, as familiar at backyard feeders as it is in oak woods. It is a clever member of the crow family that buries acorns by the thousands, mimics hawks, and sounds the alarm for every other bird in the woods when a predator shows up.
Read the full guide →The Steller's Jay is the dark, crested jay of western mountain forests, a charcoal-and-cobalt bird that patrols conifer woods from coastal Alaska to Central America. Campers know it as the bold scavenger of picnic tables; birders know it for its harsh 'shook-shook' calls and its habit of imitating hawks. It is the provincial bird of British Columbia.
Read the full guide →The California Scrub-Jay is the crestless blue jay of Pacific Coast oak woods and backyards, a bold, loud bird that many people in California simply call a blue jay. It is famous among scientists for its memory: scrub-jays bury acorns and seeds all fall and can keep track of what they hid, where, and how long ago.
Read the full guide →The Barn Swallow is the fork-tailed, steel-blue swallow that skims low over fields and ponds and plasters its mud nest to the beams of barns, porches and bridges. It is the most widespread swallow on Earth, breeding across the Northern Hemisphere, and in North America it now nests almost entirely on buildings and other human-made structures.
Read the full guide →The Tree Swallow is the iridescent blue-green and snow-white swallow that swirls over marshes and ponds in early spring and moves into bluebird boxes across the continent. It is among the first swallows back in the North and winters closer to home than its relatives, thanks to an unusual taste for bayberries, and it is one of the most studied wild birds in North America.
Read the full guide →The belted kingfisher is the stocky, shaggy-crested, blue-gray bird that rattles down rivers and lakeshores ahead of every canoe and drift boat in North America. It hunts small fish by diving headfirst from a perch or a hover, nests at the end of a tunnel it digs into a dirt bank, and is one of the few North American birds in which the female is more colorful than the male.
Read the full guide →Think you could name them from a few clues? A new mystery bird drops every day.
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