Eastern Bluebird

Sialia sialis · Thrushes

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Two Eastern Bluebirds

Constitution Marsh, 17 October 2026

Two Eastern Bluebirds in the scrub at the edge of Constitution Marsh in October, one on a dead sapling and one on a shrub turning red. After nesting, bluebirds gather in small family parties and wander the open country together, and many in the Hudson Valley stay the winter, living on berries once the insects are gone.

There is no blue pigment in the feathers at all. The colour comes from the structure of the feather, tiny pockets of air in the keratin that scatter blue light and let the rest through, which is why a bluebird's feather held up against the light looks a dull brown.

Eastern Bluebird, female

Constitution Marsh, 17 October 2026

An Eastern Bluebird on the bare tip of a branch at Constitution Marsh in October, a bird of open country with scattered trees across the eastern half of the continent. The marsh is an Audubon sanctuary on the east bank of the Hudson, opposite West Point, and its edges of old field and dead snags are just the ground bluebirds want.

Brown-grey above, with the blue kept to the wings and tail and a white ring round the eye, so a female or a bird hatched this summer rather than an adult male. Bluebirds nest in old woodpecker holes, and lost most of them in the last century to starlings and House Sparrows; it was the nest boxes put up by the thousand from the 1960s on that brought them back, and New York made the bluebird its state bird in 1970.