Western Bluebird on a fence post
Sialia mexicana
Western Bluebird · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A Western Bluebird on a fence post, which is the classic hunting perch for the species: open ground below, a clear sightline, and enough height to drop onto an insect the moment it moves. This is the bluebird of the western rangelands and orchards, and a fence line is as good as a dead branch.
They are cavity nesters, dependent on old woodpecker holes or nest boxes, which makes them one of the species that benefited most from the nest-box campaigns that spread through Californian orchards and ranches through the twentieth century.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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