Montana Birds: Bluebird Turf Wars...

Mountain bluebird

Western bluebird

Interesting tale in the current Montana Outdoors. Seems these days "when the bluebird sings at the Lemonade Spring" assuming  the Spring is located in a valley west of the Continental Divide it will most likely be a Western Bluebird doing the singing; not the Mountain variety.

There are several reasons for this but the rampant spread of bird houses, fewer low elevation tree cavities due to increased fire suppression as western valleys became more populated, coupled with behavorial differences, especially differences in aggression (western bluebirds are far more aggressive on average) and that the more timid mountain bluebird males are more nurturing, feeding nesting females and helping to raise young and, perhaps most importantly, to survive high elevation spring storms.

There is a lot more to this fascinating story and another good reason to subscribe to Montana Outdoors--for just 12 bucks a year can't hardly afford not to...