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Mountain Bluebirds Winter in Montana

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Having read a newspaper item, under date of January 15, 1929, which stated that a pair of bluebirds was wintering in the yard of Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Spaid, of Missoula, Montana, I wrote to Mr. Spaid for confirmation of the report, and for certain additional information about the birds’ stay. In his kind reply he verified the record, and gave all the desired facts.

The hardy visitors, a male and a female, are Mountain Bluebirds (Stalin currucoides). They are believed to be a pair that nested in Mr. Spaid's garage last summer; they have spent the nights in that building during the winter. They are both strong, healthy birds, capable of normal flight, and “well able to care for themselves”. Answering a question about the birds’ ability to secure sufficient food, Mr. Spaid writes: “It was eighteen below zero yesterday and the birds were both busy eating berries from the vines around the front porch. We feed them only once in a while.”

The wintering of this species so far north, in the interior, is very unusual. I do not know of any previous record of its occurrence in Montana at this season. Mr. Spaid writes that he has observed this bluebird in different localities from Washington eastward, but has never known one to remain so far north during the winter. In describing the seasonal residence of the Mountain Bluebird in Montana, A. A. Saunders states: “This species is so early in its arrival in spring, that it seems as if it would some day be found to winter in the state, at least on the west side of the continental divide. There are no winter records, however, at present. I was told of a bluebird wintering near Choteau, in the winter of 1911-12, but the information reached me second-hand and I was unable to find out from whom it came or to verify it” (Pacific Coast Avifauna No. 14, 1921, p. 171).

Fortine, Montana, January 28, 1929

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