Discover 12 Blue Birds in Maryland

Maryland is a mid-Atlantic state surrounded by abundant coastlines and waterways. Almost 40% of its land surface is covered in forests, providing the perfect environment for many bird species. Discover 12 blue birds in Maryland and learn about their habitats, appearance, foraging behavior, and other fun facts.

1. Black-Throated Blue Warbler

Range and Habitat: The black-throated blue warbler breeds in the far western portion of Maryland and migrates through the rest of the state. You can find them in shrubby or forested areas from May to June and September to October.

Coloring: Colors include midnight blue, black, and white.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They primarily eat insects and forage methodically by gleaning prey from the undersides of leaves.

Fun Fact: Males and females look so different researchers once thought they were separate species.

2. Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

Range and Habitat: The blue-gray gnatcatcher breeds in Maryland and throughout most of the southeast. Their breeding habitat consists of deciduous forests with oak, ash, maple, or southern pine.

Coloring: They’re bluish-gray, light gray, white, and black.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They are active foragers, busily searching through trees and shrubs for insects and spiders.

Fun Fact: Males are highly territorial and will chase and confront intruders.

3. Blue Jay

Range and Habitat: The blue jay lives year-round in the Eastern United States, including Maryland. You can find them in deciduous and mixed woodlands during the breeding season. But they also inhabit gardens, groves, towns, and suburban lawns.

Coloring: Their palette is blue, black, and white.

Food and Foraging Behavior: These omnivores eat plant matter, insects, spiders, snails, and much more. They forage for food on the ground, shrubs, trees, and feeders.

Fun Fact: They can mimic the calls of red-shouldered hawks.

4. Indigo Bunting

Range and Habitat: Indigo buntings breed in the eastern half of the United States. You can find them throughout Maryland during the spring and summer. They place their nests along roadsides, woodland edges, and old fields that back up to bushes.

Coloring: They come in shades of sky blue, royal blue, silver, black, and white. While the males have blue plumage during summer and the breeding season, they are brown during winter. The females are colored brown year-round.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They forage for seeds and insects in all levels of shrubs and trees. You will find them alone during the summer.

Fun Fact: They migrate at night and use the stars for guidance.

5. Eastern Bluebird

Range and Habitat: The eastern bluebird lives year-round in Maryland, except for small breeding populations in the far eastern counties. They are most common around farms, roadsides, forest clearings, and pine woods.

Coloring: Blue, chestnut, white, and black are their colors.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They eat insects and berries and forage by perching on low branches and fluttering to the ground.

Fun Fact: Bluebirds that live further north lay more eggs than those in the south.

6. Barn Swallow

Range and Habitat: The barn swallow is common and abundant across the United States during the spring and summer. They breed in Maryland around buildings, towns, and farms. They forage in fields and ponds.

Coloring: They are a mix of dark blue, tawny, cinnamon, brown, and white.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They feed on a variety of insects, capturing their prey mid-air by flying low over fields and water.

Fun Fact: This swallow species is the most abundant and wide-ranging in the world.

7. Cliff Swallow

Range and Habitat: Cliff swallows primarily live in the Western United States, but some populations find their way to Maryland during the breeding season, especially in areas further west. You can find them near farms, cliffs, and river bluffs.

Coloring: They are dark blue, red, pumpkin, dark brown, and white.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They feed primarily on flying insects and capture them mid-air. You will often find them foraging in flocks.

Fun Fact: They follow other cliff swallows to find food and will give alert calls to summon others.

8. Blue Grosbeak

Range and Habitat: The blue grosbeak primarily breeds in the Southern U.S., but you can still find it in Maryland, especially in areas closer to the coast. Look for them in woodland edges, second growth, and brushy fields.

Coloring: Vibrant blue, chestnut, silver, and black give these birds a unique look.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They eat insects and seeds and spend much of their time looking for food on the ground or in low vegetation.

Fun Fact: They have expanded their range northward, taking advantage of forest clearings.

9. Tree Swallow

Range and Habitat: Tree swallows breed in the Northern United States, migrate through the South, and winter in Mexico and Central America. In Maryland, they spend their summers in many open and semi-open habitats, including ponds, marshes, and lakes.

Coloring: Their colors include bluish-green, white, and dark brown.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They perch in bushes to forage for berries and fly low over the terrain to catch flying insects.

Fun Fact: They form huge flocks with hundreds of thousands of individuals swirling around in the sky before settling into their roosting site.

10. Cerulean Warbler

Range and Habitat: They are occasional breeders throughout most of Maryland, except for the far east, where they typically move through during migration. Cerulean warblers build their nests in mature hardwoods near streams.

Coloring: They are colored sky blue, white, and black.

Food and Foraging Behavior: They are busy foragers, moving speedily from limb to limb high in the trees as they search for insects.

Fun Fact: Females use spiderwebs to hold their nests together, and will even reuse them for a second nest.

11. White-Breasted Nuthatch

Range and Habitat: The white-breasted nuthatch lives year-round in Maryland and most of the United States. This species is common in many areas, including those near human habitations. You can find them in suburbs, parks, groves, forests, woodland edges, and clearings.

Coloring: They are bluish-gray, black, white, and chestnut.

Food and Foraging Behavior: These birds climb up and down tree trunks and large limbs in search of insects and seeds. 

Fun Fact: The nuthatch will take many trips to and from bird feeders to store food away for winter.

12. Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Range and Habitat: Most red-breasted populations live year-round in Maryland, except for some populations in the far eastern and western areas that only stay for winter. They live primarily in coniferous forests, but you can find them in any wooded habitat during the colder months.

Coloring: They are bluish-gray, white, black, and rusty brown.

Food and Foraging Behavior: This nuthatch climbs up and down trees looking for insects and seeds, but they also catch insects mid-air.

Fun Fact: They collect tree resin and place it around their nests to help keep predators away.

Summary of 12 Blue Birds in Maryland

Here’s a recap of the dozen birds with blue coloring we took a look at that can be found in Maryland.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © CezaryKorkosz/Shutterstock.com