A mountain Bluebird with 'bling'

In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays."

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id

www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...

It was the annual May Species Count on the weekend of 28 and 29 May 2016. My group's Saturday Count was down in Fish Creek Provincial Park at Votier's Flats and Shaw's Meadow. On the Sunday, our usual small group (six of us in two cars) covered an area SW of the city - which happens to be one of my favourite and most visited areas. We had a great day, stopping at a few wetlands and calling in at Barb Castell's acreage where she usually has amazing birds to show us. Several special species were missing, but we were delighted to watch a teeny Ruby-throated Hummingbird. We stopped at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park and ate our picnic lunches and then did a short walk to look for Calypso Orchids. I took too long to try and get a sharp photo of a group of fungi that I missed the orchids, but that was OK, as I have seen them a few times before.

After the Count came to an end, I drove a few of the back roads again, taking a few more shots of the Wilson's Snipe and Mountain Bluebirds, including the male in this photo.

I will add the final list from our leader - 70 bird species seen, wow! - in a comment box below.

"The count goes May 28-29: Calgary birders have been out in force every May since 1979, contributing to a broad census of the constantly changing patterns of bird distributions in North America. Last year (2015) we found 212 species. The count circle is the same as previous years, extending from Olds to Nanton, and from Exshaw to Standard, and includes a variety of environments." From NatureCalgary.