Western Bluebird
Western Bluebird Nesting Event, 2025. Cuyamaca Mountains, California.
Western Bluebird Nesting Event, 2024. Cuyamaca Mountains, California.
These are images of a pair that nested on our property in 2024. The nest box had been used by Ash-throated Flycatchers the year before (images of which are in the Ash-throated Flycatcher area of this site). This pair diligently brought their nestlings prey of many different kinds, as well as manzanita berries from the area. The last three images show the male regurgitating a small dark mass. I still have found little information about this regurgitating behavior, as the birds seen performing it did not seem to have just ingested food items.
Western Bluebirds in the Cuyamaca Mountains
From Cuyamaca Woods, and also the vicinity of Lake Cuyamaca, California. From various years.
The last image shows a male regurgitating a yellow mass of some sort.
Immature Western Bluebirds
The bird in the last image is molting into adult plumage from its speckled juvenile plumage in early September.
American Robin
A common bird all over the nation! The first four images are from the Cuyamaca Mountains, California, with Image 5 showing a molting individual. The last two images are of robins on the beach in Otter Rock, Oregon, taken in July. One was collecting small arthropods, presumably to take to nestlings, as it flew with them off the beach and onto the vegetated cliffside after gathering them.
