{"id":8607,"date":"2013-06-16T03:45:42","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T09:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=8607"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:01:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T14:01:25","slug":"a-mountain-bluebird-tribute-to-fathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/16\/a-mountain-bluebird-tribute-to-fathers\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Bluebird Tribute to Fathers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Mountain Bluebird in a stiff wind
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday my post focused on female Mountain Bluebirds<\/a> and today I am presenting males in honor of Father’s Day. I was blessed to have two fathers, one who died when I was very young and later on\u00a0my second Dad came into my life and passed away in 2007. Both of them are deeply missed, especially on this day.<\/p>\n

Mountain Bluebird males help the female feed their nestlings and they are great providers, that is if you like insects, spiders and caterpillars! This male Mountain Bluebird was photographed in Montana, the breeze was blowing hard that day and for a few seconds he struggled to keep his balance on his perch. I guess some human dads struggle to stay on the pedestals we as children place them on too.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Mountain Bluebird with prey for its nestlings<\/span><\/p>\n

Mountain Bluebirds hover at times like American Kestrels do when they are hunting. They must have great eyesight to see small insects and spiders before they dive down to capture them. I think this one caught a spider in the shrubs in a valley in Montana.<\/p>\n

\"MountainMountain Bluebird male bringing in prey for its young<\/span><\/p>\n

This male Mountain Bluebird brought in a rather hairy looking caterpillar to the nest box for his young.<\/p>\n

Mountain Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters and the bluebird boxes that have been put up all over the country has helped the bluebirds return from serious declines in previous decades.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Neil Paprocki of WildLensInc.org<\/a><\/span>\u00a0I found out about “The Bluebird Man<\/a><\/span>“; Al Larson, who has been putting up Bluebird nest boxes and monitoring them\u00a0since 1978 and he has banded and astonishing 27,000 plus bluebirds in Idaho and who is continuing to monitor them at 91 years of age. In the near future I will do another post on this fascinating man and the movie that WildLensInc.org is producing about Al Larson, bluebirds and other secondary cavity nesters.<\/p>\n

\"BeautifulBeautiful blue Mountain Bluebird<\/span><\/p>\n

This male Mountain Bluebird was photographed in Fremont County, Idaho not far from Henry’s Lake and Island Park. The blue of these males outshines sapphires!<\/p>\n

I wish every dad who visits my site a Happy Father’s Day and I hope you enjoy my Mountain Bluebird Tribute to Fathers!<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

*I\u00a0am\u00a0on the road again, you might think I\u00a0 am trying very hard to not let moss grow under my feet and you would be correct! Please feel free to share my posts with your family and friends.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday my post focused on female Mountain Bluebirds and today I am presenting males in honor of Father’s Day. I was blessed to have two fathers, one who died when I was very young and later in my second Dad came into my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,27,223,2245,2244,12,1369],"tags":[4004,5933,4880,3720,898,4062,228,343,4106,4339,165,3844,4881,5434,5361,8917],"class_list":["post-8607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-centennial-valley","category-fremont-county","category-idaho","category-montana","category-mountain-bluebirds","tag-adult","tag-bluebird","tag-bluebirds","tag-cavity-nesters","tag-fence-post","tag-male","tag-mountain-bluebird","tag-photography","tag-prey","tag-sialia-currucoides","tag-spring","tag-thrush","tag-thrushes","tag-valley","tag-wind","tag-wooden-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-montana-mia-mcpherson-2168.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2eP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37342,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/03\/24\/mountain-bluebird-plumage-development-stages\/","url_meta":{"origin":8607,"position":0},"title":"Mountain Bluebird Plumage Development Stages","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"These images from different times of the year show Mountain Bluebird plumage development stages from not long after fledging to adulthood.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched juvenile Mountain Bluebird, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-7094.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-7094.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-7094.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-7094.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4663,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/21\/mountain-bluebird-male\/","url_meta":{"origin":8607,"position":1},"title":"Mountain Bluebird Male","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"How blue can blue be? I think Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoide) males are a wonderful example of just how blue a bird can be.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Mountain Bluebird, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-mia-mcpherson-5375.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-mia-mcpherson-5375.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-mia-mcpherson-5375.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-mia-mcpherson-5375.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8600,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/15\/female-mountain-bluebirds-in-montana\/","url_meta":{"origin":8607,"position":2},"title":"Female Mountain Bluebirds in Montana","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There were Mountain Bluebirds everywhere I looked on my recent trip to Montana where flashes of their brilliant blue plumage were a delight to my eyes.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mountain Bluebird female with prey for her young, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-7085.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-7085.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-7085.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-7085.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9060,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/31\/juvenile-mountain-bluebird-in-montana\/","url_meta":{"origin":8607,"position":3},"title":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird in Montana","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month and this month I wrote about Mountain Bluebirds in several posts that included images of adult males and females, today I am posting one image of the many fledglings I saw last week.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mountain Bluebird juvenile in Montana, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6110.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6110.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6110.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6110.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52534,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/06\/11\/female-mountain-bluebird-from-a-distance-and-up-close\/","url_meta":{"origin":8607,"position":4},"title":"Female Mountain Bluebird From A Distance And Up Close","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"After a bit the female Mountain Bluebird did something surprising... She flew in so close that I could only take close ups of her as she appeared to forage at the edge of the dirt road.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Mountain Bluebird close up, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-female-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8936.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-female-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8936.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-female-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8936.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-female-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8936.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":90551,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/06\/18\/male-mountain-bluebird-perched-on-mullein\/","url_meta":{"origin":8607,"position":5},"title":"Male Mountain Bluebird Perched On Mullein","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't had many bluebirds in my viewfinder this spring so when this adult male Mountain Bluebird perched on mullein showed up last week I was happy to photograph it.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Mountain Bluebird perched on mullein, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-on-mullein-mia-mcpherson-5870.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-on-mullein-mia-mcpherson-5870.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-on-mullein-mia-mcpherson-5870.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-on-mullein-mia-mcpherson-5870.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}