THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, AND SOLITAIRES: Family Turdidae [ 479 ] 



placed the box. Two or more broods are raised each season, and fresh- 

 egg dates extend from May 6 to June 2.7, both extremes from Portland. 



The species was described by Townsend (1839) fr m specimens col- 

 lected near Fort Vancouver, some of which may well have come from 

 Oregon; but the first definite State record was made from east of the 

 Cascades nearly 2.0 years later when Newberry (1857) reported the species 

 from the Deschutes Basin. Suckley (Cooper and Suckley 1860) listed it 

 from The Dalles. Since then the Oregon literature on this species has 

 been voluminous, and the numerous published records, together with our 

 own notes, cover every county. 



Mountain Bluebird: 



Sialia currucoides (Bechstein) 



DESCRIPTION. " Adult male: Upper parts light purplish blue or greenish blue; under 

 parts pale greenish blue. In winter, color dulled by dull brownish tips to feathers 

 above and below. Adult female: upper parts brownish gray, wings and tail bright 

 blue; under parts fawn color, with blue showing through. Young: brownish or 

 grayish, streaked with white; wings and tail blue. Male: Length 6.50-7.90, wing 

 4.60-4.80, tail 3.00-3.15. Female: Length 7.00-7.10, wing about 4.2.5, tail 1.75- 

 1.90." (Bailey) Nest: In old woodpecker holes or natural cavities. Eggs: 5 to 7, 

 pale greenish blue. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from Yukon, British Columbia, central Alberta, 

 Saskatchewan, and Manitoba south into Mexico and from Cascades and Sierra 

 Nevadas to western Dakotas and Nebraska. Winters south into Mexico. In Oregon: 

 Permanent resident and breeding species from summit of Cascades through eastern 

 Oregon. 



THE MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD, most brilliant blue of any native species, 

 winters in small numbers throughout the sagebrush country of eastern 

 Oregon but becomes much more abundant in early March when the 

 southern birds arrive. Its numbers decrease again in November to the 

 comparatively few wintering individuals. We have recorded it in every 

 county east of the Cascades as well as in those that reach the summit from 

 the west. These birds furnish a brilliant and irreplaceable color note in 

 the gray sage landscape; particularly when in migration their brilliant 

 blues flash in the desert sun in startling contrast to the prevailing dull 

 colors of most of the other birds. They have learned to use the fences 

 and telephone wires to good purpose, both as a resting place and as a 

 vantage point from which to watch for a luckless insect that may crawl 

 into view. 



Bendire (Brewer 1875, Bendire 1877), who found the species nesting in 

 Oregon, first in 1875 an< ^ again in 1876, stated that it commenced to nest 

 about May 2.0 and probably raised two broods. Most ornithologists who 

 have worked eastern Oregon since his time have had something to say 

 about this brilliant songster. Nesting dates vary from April xo to June 

 2.1, and the habits and behavior of this bluebird are much the same as 



