WESTERN BIRDS Bluebird 



GENUS SIALIA : WESTERN BLUEBIRD. 



Western Bluebird: Sialia mexicanc occidentdlis. 

 FAMILY— THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. 



The Western Bluebird is found on the Pacific coast 

 breeding from British Columbia east to northern Idaho 

 and western Montana, and south to the San Jacinto 

 Mountains, southern California; wintering south into 

 Lower California. 



Not only are these western birds different in plumage 

 from the eastern form, but in ways they also vary. The 

 blue upper parts are broken on the back by dull chestnut 

 and the throat is blue instead of chestnut like sialis; 

 breast chestnut and rest of under parts dull purplish 

 and gray. 



In southern California they are winter visitors — for 

 the most part — where banded together they flit about 

 in the open fields, and are gone to the higher altitudes 

 for nest-building. Never have I known them to occupy 

 a bird box as do their eastern cousins. However, there 

 is some consolation in the hope that in time we may 

 coax them about our homes, since some of them are 

 nesting in the parks of Los Angeles, and near-by canyons. 



In another way they differ from the type in that they 

 do not sing. A soft pu-it, almost a whisper, they often 

 give, but never have I heard the eastern song, although 

 I have watched them during the nesting season and other 

 times of year. In Washington, where Mr. Dawson has 

 watched them for many years, he reports that they have 

 no song, and I feel that we must abide by the decision 

 of so eminent an authority. 



In their gentle, quiet way they are like the eastern 

 species. Finley in his "American Birds" tells of a pair 

 he watched in Oregon that raised one brood, and when 



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