Sonoran field notes, April.
Arizona is the only US state with three bluebird species - Eastern, Western, and Mountain - and they sort themselves cleanly by elevation. Below that headline list, Arizona’s blue birds include some of the most striking small birds in the country: the Mexican Jay, the Lazuli Bunting, the Pinyon Jay. Twelve species in total, and most are seeable in a single April week if you travel the elevation gradient from desert floor to Sky Island.
The three Arizona bluebirds (rare in any one US state)
- Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana) - the common one. Deep blue with rusty throat. Pine-oak woodland, 3,500-7,500 feet.
- Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) - all-over electric blue male. High elevation meadows, 7,000-10,000 feet.
- Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) - blue with rusty breast. Open grassland and ranchland in southeast Arizona, year-round.
You can in principle see all three in a single day driving from Tucson up to the Santa Catalina or Chiricahua Sky Islands.
The full 12 blue and blue-tinted birds
Bright blue:
- Western Bluebird, Mountain Bluebird, Eastern Bluebird (above)
- Lazuli Bunting - electric blue head, rusty breast. Summer breeder.
- Indigo Bunting - all-over blue. Less common in Arizona, mostly southeast.
- Mexican Jay - blue-grey-and-brown, oak woodland of southeast Sky Islands.
- Pinyon Jay - blue-grey, social, pinyon pine country.
- Steller’s Jay - dark blue with black crest. Higher elevation conifers.
Blue-tinted:
- Western Scrub-Jay (Woodhouse’s) - blue back, grey breast. Lower-elevation oak.
- Black-throated Blue Warbler - rare migrant.
- Belted Kingfisher - blue-grey crest and breast band, year-round near water.
- Tree Swallow - iridescent blue-green back. Migration, especially September.
Where they sort by elevation
Arizona’s blue list rewards a vertical road trip:
- Sonoran Desert floor (1,000-3,000 ft) - Belted Kingfisher (at riparian sites), Lazuli Bunting in migration, Western Scrub-Jay in oak fringe.
- Madrean evergreen woodland (3,500-6,000 ft) - Western Bluebird, Mexican Jay, Western Scrub-Jay, Lazuli Bunting in summer.
- Mixed conifer (6,000-9,000 ft) - Steller’s Jay, Pinyon Jay, Western Bluebird.
- Subalpine meadows (8,000-10,000 ft) - Mountain Bluebird.
This vertical sort is the headline pleasure of Arizona birding: drive up a single mountain and see a different bluebird at each elevation band.
Where to go
- Santa Catalina Mountains (Mt. Lemmon Hwy, Tucson) - all three bluebirds in one drive.
- Chiricahua Mountains / Cave Creek Canyon - Mexican Jay, Western Bluebird, plus everything else.
- Patagonia-Sonoita - Lazuli and Indigo Buntings, kingfishers along Sonoita Creek.
- Grand Canyon South Rim - Pinyon Jay, Steller’s Jay, Mountain Bluebird (high meadows).
Sibley Field Guide Birds of Western North America
The book Arizona birders carry.
David Allen Sibley's Western North America guide is the standard reference for Arizona. The bluebird plate shows all three species side-by-side at the same scale - essential for sorting Western from Mountain when both occur on the same Sky Island. Updated 2016 second edition.
- Every Western species, hand-painted plates
- All three bluebirds at scale for easy comparison
- Range maps reflecting current Southwest distributions
Sibley · Western 2nd Ed.
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The bottom line
Arizona is genuinely the best US state for blue-bird diversity, mostly because it stacks three biomes (desert, woodland, conifer) within a short drive. Pick a Sky Island, climb it, and you’ll have most of the list inside a day.
For regional comparison see our notes on Alabama and Arkansas.
