Western Bluebirds Sialia mexicana; found by Fred Land and myself while performing some bird sampling along Martinez Creek just west of downtown San Antonio on February 22 2012. In Texas this species is rare east of the Pecos River and very rare south/east of the Edwards Plateau:
This photo was taken
by Fred soon after we found the first group of three birds:
After I'd finished work I returned to the area with my camera in the afternoon, and more birds were seen along the same short stretch of the creek for most of the afternoon (but were gone for short periods)
The birds were mostly feeding from the ground in the shortish grass edges on the high bank of the creek, where there seemed to be good numbers of small moths:
There were two males and six females; the two males are shown together (with one female) in the photo below:
