Flying Work of Art

Howdy folks! Even with Brad’s help I am running behind this month. Having been gone nearly the first three weeks of April and now heading out to St. Louis for a few days so Linda can compete in the Poodle Nationals at Purina Farms, I’m a few posts behind. Trying to get at least one more in while I am waiting for some glue to dry on this year’s signature Halloween prop – a piece that is definitely ending up to be a lot more effort than initially imagined. Cue Linda eye roll “Every one of your projects turns out more than you expected!!!!” True, but most of the time … in the end…”wooooorttthhhh IT” ha (like in this link here). We’ll see how this is going a few months down the road. For now, will try to clear the head of glue fumes and bring you an incredible feathered feature of the day.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

Don’t worry, if you hit the jump I’ll get you closer to our feature.

Yeah, I know, I promised you that in the last post and I brought you a grey cloud of a bird. For the record, that little guy/gal got a lot more appreciation that initially expected. This time I am bringing the color with one of the latest checks in the life list.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

Well, that was what I thought. Another tin from our latest trip to Vegas turns out to NOT be a plus one. That is twice in a row that I have been super stoked in the field to witness what I thought was a new bird only to find out minutes before starting the post that the species tag was already in my WordPress history. Must be experiencing some bad juju that is messing with my memory. This one was also first covered back in October 2014 (link here) from a trip in 2012 to .. you guessed it.. Vegas. New readers may be puzzled over the 2 year gap – long story, an alien abduction resulted in my multi-year backlog – you’ll get used to it ha.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

Although not technically a new bird to the blog, I am bringing the color in this one. No more grey on grey washed with grey for my readers. Today I’m coming at ya’ with … well… grey, but it now comes partnered with vibrant blues and oranges at least on the Western Bluebird males. The first few shots above feature the female which we will get back to in just a bit. I led with those due to the interesting gnarly wood perch.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

There we go, that’s the beautiful coloring of the male I was promising. For those of you on the eastern half of the US (and down into Central America) you may be thinking to yourself – that’s and EASTERN Bluebird. Trust me, I was right with you before I learned about this Western cousin. This subspecies hangs out primarily in the west (thanks to an excellent roll of the decahedron die I got a +2 intelligence boost with that statement). Our friends in New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona get to enjoy Mr. and Mrs. Little Boy Blue as well.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

The Eastern and the Western regions thankfully do not overlap much at least in the US. Unfortunately, those in Central America will have to put more effort into sorting them out as they are fairly close in their coloring. For the males, you can distinguish them by the head and shoulder coloring. Easterns have an orange throat where the Westerns have a solid blue throat. This would have been a good time for the bird naming orgs to have gone with Blue-Throated Bluebird to help us in the field – granted it would cause some confusion with the females. In my defense, they didn’t seem to care about that with the Black-Throated Green Warbler.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

The other clue is the Western males have chestnut on their shoulders where the Easterns carry the same blue coloring through the entirety of their upper bodies. If you are fortunate to witness a male, those two clues will win you respect and field cred with friends and family. Now when it comes to the females..you will need to work a little harder.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

I had intended to feature this series before switching to the Juniper for the last post. Reason is, I wanted to do some additional validation on the female coloring. Not just whether she was an Eastern or a Western, but a completely different species all together. This will become clearer in my next post.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

I find the Eastern and Western females to be nearly identical. Per my previous post on the Eastern (link here), you will notice, similar to the female here, they have a duller wash of coloring. Very typical in the birding world. The throat turns out to be a key feature here as well. Westerns have a grey (there’s that color again) throat where the Easterns have more of a light orange tint which carries up the side of the neck. Beyond that they can be cast in Parent Trap.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

It may just be this particular couple we encountered, but the male pretty much just sat there smug in its Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. “In a class above the rest, it even went well with his vest, such a stunning coat of many colours”. The female, she wasn’t exactly pleased with us invading her domain.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

She kept a watchful eye on us and would flit from stump to tree to shrub and back. A bit early to be nesting so doubtful she was trying to draw us away from a nest. Maybe the barrel of The Beast just triggered a bad flashback from the jungles of ’69. Not wanting to stress it anymore, we moved ahead on the trail. Just as we were about to make it out of sight, she popped onto a perfectly lit bush. Had to take that shot.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

Turned out to be my favorite shot of the series – the variety of gold tones really compliment the subdued coloring of the bird. I think this one will be going to print when we get back from St. Louis (after toning down some of the hotspots). That is the only shot I got then, she quickly took off to be with her mate.

Western Bluebird found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas NV in March 2023

Hope you enjoyed our little blue friends from the West. Oops, almost forgot. This series was taken at Desert National Wildlife Refuge. That is a wonderful place if you have never been there. Not too far from Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Highly recommend bring a 4×4 if you really want to explore that massive refuge. I’ll cover that more in the upcoming post.

For now, take care and wish Brad luck on tinning his out of state assignment bird.

42 thoughts on “Flying Work of Art”

  1. Ms. W. Bluebird looked like she wanted to take a contract out on a certain pesky paparazzo. It’s good you lived to show off your excellent photos of the cranky lady and her handsome man bird.

    Have a great time at the poodle fest. Lift a leg!

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    1. Absolutely- she was definitely using some “blue language” on me. Linda had to step up and defend my honor or Ms. Blue would have probably taken my wallet and rolled my butt down the mountain. “Lift a leg” made me laugh.

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          3. Yep. The record snow pack in the Sierras is threatening to wash away Carlifornia. It might take out Las Vegas as a bonus.

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          4. Surprised we didn’t get much snow here in the Midwest – a bit concerned how the wells are going to fare as we usually rely on the big Spring floods to get us through most of the hot summer months. May have to start relying on your bathing strategy ha.

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          10. I am sworn to secrecy and not accountable for what I do under the influence – not to mention the crazy ideas that pop into the heads of juveniles (shhhh, don’t tell the city slickers, but more myth than reality)

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        2. Good point, maybe the drought saved my life.. nowhere to dump the carcass – although I think she might have been able to collude with the Bighorns and have me taken out to a distant place in the refuge .. probably shouldn’t be giving her any ideas.

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  3. I am familiar with the Eastern Bluebird from the year they lived in our Martin house in Virginia before the Martins claimed it. That was a long time ago, but I will never forget them! Thank you for this post about Western Bluebirds. Lovely photos and a fascinating comparison! ❤ ❤ ❤

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    1. You are quite welcome Cheryl and glad I could bring back some memories for you. They are quite beautiful birds, but as you probably noticed the two species look almost exactly alike Stay tuned, there is at least one more bluebird in the queue! Take care and appreciate you dropping in.

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    1. Thank you Kelly, glad you enjoyed the post. Just in case anyone was eating while reading the post, I left out the painful alien anal probe removal hehehe. I may have to add Capt’n Canary to my business cards, has a nice ring to it – chuckle. Take care!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the feature CJ. Good news, if you like bluebirds you are also going to like what is sitting in the queue. Give me a few days and I should have that ready for viewing. Thanks for the St. Louis wishes – this will be interesting. Raven is an old pro and should take it in stride, but Ruger is likely to be the show’s comic relief. He recently hit the terrible 2’s and he has decided he gets to decided the order of obstacles not the judge – much to the embarrassment of his mommy. He did get reunited with his litter mate (brother) today who is also competing with him – his owner is equally worried about her 2 year old going crazy ha. Will have to let everyone know how it goes. Thanks for dropping in.

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        1. I know… you feed them, sacrifice your time, keep them on the right path and then they flip you the Poodle finger in public when they know you can’t do anything about it…if they weren’t so cute… ha.

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  7. A Bluebird by any other directional/geographical feature name would fly as sweet.

    Lovely photographs. The female and immature birds can give us fits if we don’t get a good look at them. (Okay, probably just me.)

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    1. Ha, I see what you did there! Thanks for the kind words Wally – we are all in the same “ball of confusion” when it comes to the females and juvis that differ from their adult male counterparts. Brad can confirm, one of my golden rules in the field is to get any bird nearby in the tin as well, if nothing else, to help in the later ID phase. Depending on the time of the year, you can get lucky with a female just by locating their mate. Decided to give a listen to that Temptation song – amazing how pertinent it is today “Where the world’s headed, said, nobody knows”. Appreciate you stopping by.

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  8. Great camera work, catching the subtle variations in color. I’m familiar with the species, which we saw in Colorado decades ago (and only partly because I was a Bluebird, the junior form of Camp Fire Girls, complete with blue skirt, and blue vest with red front – eyeroll, indeed). Looking forward to reading more about this Refuge.

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    1. Thank you Sam. Had to laugh at the Bluebird story – all they needed was to add some frilly feathers to your outfits and you could have jumped right into their nest. I grew up in the Cub Scout organization, but only lasted two months in the Boy Scout ranks – preferred to enjoy and learn about the great outdoors directly from my father and brothers. Do wish I had stayed through the master knots class. I tried to give some additional info on Desert NWR in the next post – a wonderful place and one, like Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, will be a required visit whenever we head out there for now on. Take care and appreciate you dropping in and sharing the funny memories.

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    1. Thank yo Silvia – these Bluebirds are a joy to experience and fairly accommodating for us photographers… at least the males ha.

      Apprezzo che tu sia passato di qui, buon resto della settimana.

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