Watch for Bluebirds When You Travel Back Roads in the Fall

"Where are they, show me?" The note of urgency in their voices was familiar. It is always there when I mention seeing this bird, no matter how experienced my companions are. No one wants to miss seeing a bluebird. The image of the male when it first comes into view is always startling - and beautiful. The color of the back and head is so deep and rich that no sky could ever match it. Each experience etches a memory on the mind that always needs to be repeated.

"Are there any bluebirds around? I haven't seen one in years." This used to be the most frequent comment from a person who first discovered that I was a bird man. Happily the bluebird statement lately has been, " I saw one in my backyard the other day." The question that came to me by mail recently was unusual, however. The writer said that she was traveling through the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs when she "saw the most beautiful blue birds. The color was, as I remember it, like the blue birds we used to see around here years ago." It was a fresh variation of that old question.

The full common name of the species we know is eastern bluebird, but there is a western counterpart that shares the same rich color, although perhaps even a shade deeper with a tinge of purple in it. The letter writer had probably seen a western bluebird, although it could have been another cousin that is also resident out west, the mountain bluebird. The color of this third species is more truly sky blue, similar to the color of the tail of the eastern bluebird. The tail is the only part fully blue on the female eastern bluebird. She has a dusky gray back with only a hint of blue tinge.

The habits of the bluebird help to make it special, and October is a good month to see them, often in large numbers. In spring they are paired, with the male extremely aggressive toward other males. But in fall the bluebird displays the gentle, easy disposition for which it is admired. They are not fearful of people, and up to fifty or more birds will join together in a feeding flock and astound they eye as they feed openly. Many birds have spectacular colors, but the bluebird shows it off by sitting quietly on a low perch, searching the ground beneath for the beetles and grasshoppers it relishes. When it spots a meal, it settles quietly down like a falling leaf, grabbing its prize and returning back to the limb or post to resume the search.

They have gathered together now for the short trip south and they are in no hurry. Most of the brightly colored birds are tropical and need to quickly push on to complete their long journey. The bluebird is hardy and resourceful, able to find enough insect life with its rather unique hunting methods. Only when snow covers the hard ground do many of them move farther south to Virginia or the Carolinas. But some even stay the entire winter, surviving on berries, crabapples and rose hips.

The bluebird is a member of the thrush family, all medium sized ground feeding birds, the best known being the American robin. The robin is also hardy and gathers in flocks to feed either in fields or woods during the late fall on its way farther south. Yet another member of the family is the hermit thrush, an exclusively deep woods bird that also travels and feeds in loose flocks, belying its name. If you walk a forest trail in the fall you might flush several of these from the ground into a nearby low bush.

But if you drive along a country road with fields and pastures in October, eventually you will run across a flock of bluebirds. They will not fly in tight groups together like starlings or waxwings, but are loosely associated, following one or two at a time from telephone wire to low limb to fence post. When you find them, listen for the mellow two note call, usually given in flight. It has a plaintive, friendly quality, a bit mournful, and quite distinct from any other bird.

You will always be eager to spot this touch of blue among the gold.