Yesterday I was absolutely delighted to spot a small flock of Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The bright, cheery blue of their feathers never fails to bring a smile to my face, especially during the long gray days of winter.
The bluebirds spent a lot of their time foraging in a field of what I think is sumac. I may be totally wrong about the plant and would welcome a correction. Whatever the case, the bluebirds really liked it. Most of the time they foraged as individuals or as pair, but occasionally a small group of them would work in the same area, as you can see in the first image.
It was a challenge to photograph these pretty little birds because they were quite a distance away. Most of the time when they bent over to pluck a berry, they disappeared from sight.
On occasion I was able to isolate a bird and create a portrait of the bluebird. The second and third images show two different approaches that I used, with the final shot showing much more of the overall environment rather than the details of the subject. From my perspective, both images work well, albeit in different ways.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Gorgeous! Appears they’re having a feast. Intriguing coloring match – bird chest & berries.
Nice Mike! Always fun to photograph Bluebirds!
Beautiful photos! I love seeing bluebirds. We have Western Bluebirds here in California; they are similar. 😊
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The birds’ color coordination with their food source is impressive. 🙂 Great set of photos!
Fantastic post Mike! I’ve shared a link on twitter. These pics are gorgeous!
Great photos, beautiful birds.
Thanks, Ryan.
Lovely shots, Mike. Bluebirds do raise one’s spirits!
With so many of your birds migrating down here to Costa Rica in your winters, I’ve wondered why Bluebirds don’t? But so glad you get to enjoy them year around! 🙂
I am so thrilled that a few of the colorful birds, like the cardinal and the bluebird, remain during the winter to brighten our days. It is always a bit of a mystery, though, how they are able to survive when the conditions are harsh, but somehow they manage.
Thye add a nice bit of color for January.
And that color is so welcome. It always seems to me that January is the grayest month of the year after the brightness of the Christmas holiday fades away.
Very pretty birds. Good capture!
Thanks. For all-around beauty, it is hard to beat the color combination of the bluebirds.
Beautiful portraits, Mike, bravo! Our bluebird family spends every day visiting our mealworm feeder–and now some of them are also eating sunflower seeds from the tube feeder, which is clearly not designed for them; they have to lean way over or even hover to reach the openings and take a seed. They are so cute. I love the way they (usually) wait patiently for their colleague to finish with the mealworms before they take a turn. Sometimes two at a time will crowd into the little blue box of mealworms. And then there are the times when one is feeding and another one, tired of waiting, swoops in and chases the first one away. They are endlessly entertaining.
I love your description of the antics of the bluebirds, Nina. It must be a real treat for them to have mealworms at this time of the year, when in the wild they have to rely on seeds and berries.
There is nothing so uplifting as coming upon a flock of bluebirds in the winter. You captured their party well here, Mike, these beautiful eastern bluebirds.