Mountain Bluebird Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: Mountain Bluebirds have got to be one of the most drop-dead gorgeous songbirds in North America. That unique sky-blue plumage just always pops from the surrounding landscape when you see one. Alas, it's typically a 5-hour drive from our part of eastern South Dakota before we can reasonably expect to see one, although we did have one quite lost bird that was found just a mile from our house in 2020! But we see them every time we visit the Black Hills. That includes my favorite Mountain Bluebird photo below, taken on a family vacation when we were staying in a cabin near Pringle, South Dakota in June of 2020.

Mountain Bluebird - Sialia currucoides


Mountain Bluebird 1	Mountain Bluebird 2	Mountain Bluebird 3	Mountain Bluebird 4
May 25th, 2008	May 25th, 2008	May 25th, 2008	July 23rd, 2011
Custer State Park, South Dakota	Custer State Park, South Dakota	Custer State Park, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota
Male bluebird on fence post with unusual background (building)	Male bluebird on fence post with unusual background (building)	Female on a horizontal wooden fence rail	Bluebird enjoying a dust bath on a gravel road

Mountain Bluebird 5	Mountain Bluebird 6	Mountain Bluebird 7	Mountain Bluebird 8
July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	September 1st, 2018
North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	Custer State Park, South Dakota
Female perched on wooden fence post	Profile of a female bluebird on a fence post	Bluebird enjoying a dust bath on a gravel road	Pale male bluebird on a barbed wire fence

Mountain Bluebird 9	Mountain Bluebird 10	Mountain Bluebird 11	Mountain Bluebird 12
July 13th, 2019	July 13th, 2019	June 24th, 2020	June 24th, 2020
Roby Canyon, Black Hills, South Dakota	Roby Canyon, Black Hills, South Dakota	Near Pringle, South Dakota	Near Pringle, South Dakota
Female perched on a dead tree branch	Male profile on a wooden fence post	Colorful male on a fence post	Male bluebird on top of a small spruce true

Mountain Bluebird 13	Mountain Bluebird 14	Mountain Bluebird 15	Mountain Bluebird 16
June 24th, 2020	May 14th, 2016	June 24th, 2020	June 27th, 2020
Near Pringle, South Dakota	Near LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge, South Dakota	Near Pringle, South Dakota	Near Pringle, South Dakota
Male bluebird on top of a small spruce tree	Male bluebird on a barbed wire fence	Female bluebird on fence post with freshly caught breakfast	Female bluebird with insects its bringing back to the nest

Mountain Bluebird 17	Mountain Bluebird 18	Mountain Bluebird 19
June 28th, 2020	June 28th, 2020	June 28th, 2020
Near Pringle, South Dakota	Near Pringle, South Dakota	Near Pringle, South Dakota
Sky blue male bluebird on top of a fence post	Inquisitive male bluebird in front-on view	Female Mountain Bluebird on top of spruce tree