Page 20 - Black Range Naturalist, Vol. 2, No. 3

We have all three of the North American Bluebird species in the Black Range. That may come as a surprise to some who assume that we have only the Mountain Bluebird and the Western Bluebird. During December 2018 we had a number of Eastern Bluebirds in Hillsboro. Since some readers may not be familiar with that species we thought we would take a moment to note the significant differences and to dispell the assumption that Eastern Bluebirds found here would be vagrants from the east.
Note the following in the comparison photographs shown below. A. The throat is blue in the Western Bluebird compared to rufous in the Eastern Bluebird. B. The rufous coloring extends up the side of the neck on the Eastern Bluebird but not on the Western. C. A bluish cast can be seen on the belly of the Western Bluebird in many cases, being absent on the Eastern.
There are seven subspecies of Eastern Bluebird. The birds
Black Range Bluebirds
Photos by Véronique De Jaegher and Bob Barnes
Eastern Bluebird - Sialia sialis sialis December 30, 2018 Hillsboro, NM Photo by Bob Barnes
C
A
A
B
Western Bluebird - Sialia mexicana - Kingston, NM. Photo by Véronique De Jaegher
B C
Eastern Bluebird - Sialia sialis sialis 19