Blue and yellow birds are some of the most beautiful creatures on our planet and can be found in all parts of the world. Most of these birds are fun to watch and good to keep as pets.
Blue and yellow birds come in shades from dark blue, bright blue, pale yellow, sunset yellow, or even sunny yellow. Here are the ten most vibrant blue and yellow birds in the world!
10 most vibrant blue and yellow birds including:
- Blue-and-Yellow Macaw
- Eurasian Blue Tit
- Prothonotary Warblers
- Northern Parulas
- Tropical Kingbirds
- Orange-breasted Buntings
- Blue-and-yellow Tanager
- Painted Buntings
- Nashville Warblers
- Blue-winged Warblers
Contents
1. Blue-and-Yellow Macaw
Native to the rainforests of South America, the blue-and-yellow macaw is a truly magnificent bird. Its wings are yellow with gray bands going across them.
It’s one of the common parrots in Florida, with a length of nearly one meter (81 to 91 cm) and weighing around 0.09 to 1.5 kilograms (0.2 to 3.3 pounds).
They like to eat figs, guavas, mangoes, oranges, bananas, plantains, and many types of berries and nuts, such as palm nuts, almonds, cashews, and walnuts.
Fun Facts
- They live around fifty years in captivity but only thirty years in the wild.
- These birds are pretty playful, often playing games where they toss objects back and forth with each other or play hide-and-seek by flying off and hiding in the jungle.
- These birds have been hunted for their gorgeous feathers by people throughout history.
2. Eurasian Blue Tit
Eurasian blue tits are a small passerine bird that belongs to the tit family, Paridae. They’re identifiable by their bright blue and yellow plumage and tiny size.
You can find it in Eurasia, primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, including the British Isles, the Iberian Peninsula, the Japanese archipelago, and the Russian far east.
Eurasian blue tits are insectivorous, feeding on caterpillars, bugs, and aphids; they will take berries in wintertime when insects are scarce or hibernating.
Fun Facts
- They make various calls or songs, mimicking other birds like crows, blackbirds, or song thrushes.
- They typically lay 3 to 5 blue-ish green eggs at a time, which they incubate for 12-13 days before the chicks start fledging (i.e., leaving their nest).
- They’re known to dive-bomb humans that come too close to their nest and hold onto people’s hair with their claws.
3. Prothonotary Warblers
The prothonotary warbler is a small, yellow-breasted bird found in swampy areas of eastern North America.
This small species migrates to Central America or Mexico in the winter months. You can spot them by their large tail, which they use to help propel themselves through the air.
Prothonotary Warblers feed on tiny fruit from aquatic plants, small reptiles, caterpillars, bugs, beetles, mealworms, and insects that live near the water’s edge.
Fun Facts
- Since they live near swamp areas, they’re also called swamp yellow-breasts or water yellow-breasts.
- When feeding on the ground, both sexes may fluff out their wings as if ready to fly away at any moment.
- The bird is called Prothonotary Warbler due to its resemblance to the yellow-hooded prothonotaries of the Roman Catholic Churches.
- Unmated males sing more frequently than females and can sing for hours without stopping.
4. Northern Parulas
The Northern Parula is a small songbird native to eastern North America from Canada to Florida. It’s known for its bright yellow underparts, which turn white as the bird matures.
Parulas are commonly found in open woods, shrubby areas, hedges, orchards, parks, oak savannahs, and streams. They like large trees with dense foliage for cover and nesting sites.
During winter, you can find them in flocks feeding on fruit and berries around gardens. They also feed on beetles, flies, caterpillars, bugs, ants, butterflies, and moths.
Fun Facts
- Their nests are built of sticks, lined with grasses and leaves, and they lay 4-5 eggs (whitish marked with brown) at a time.
- Males frequently feed the young more than females and protect their territory from other males by singing territorial songs from perches high up in trees.
- When courting, males will hop toward females and perform a sequence of wing-flapping, bowing, jumping, and twirling displays.
- The female will choose whether she wants to mate by standing still or running away from him. If she stays still, they breed; if she runs away, the male will chase her.
5. Tropical Kingbirds
The tropical kingbird is a species of bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. They are native to Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and southern Florida.
Their diet consists of butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, crickets, wasps, hornets, bees, beetles, butterflies, crickets, and dragonflies.
Almost any open or semi-open habitat that provides opportunities to perch and hunt flying insects will suffice for Tropical Kingbirds.
They flock to mangroves, scrubby woodlands, deserts with enough cactus, beach scrub, riparian corridors, and thorn forests in coastal areas.
Fun Facts
- Their loud calls warn other birds of predators such as snakes or large cats that might be hunting nearby.
- When they catch prey, they impale it on thorns or barbed wire for later consumption.
- Males are territorial during the breeding season and will vigorously defend their nesting sites from other males who come too close.
- These birds have good eyesight and can see insects from several yards away.
- It’s one of a few birds that can see at night (nocturnal birds)
6. Orange-breasted Buntings
The orange-breasted buntings are a species of passerine birds in the Cardinalidae family found in North America, India, and Southeast Asia.
These beautiful birds have bright yellow chests, blue backs, and greenish top-head with black masks around their eyes.
They inhabit open woodlands, grasslands, pastures, cultivated rice fields, and crops such as maize, millet, or sorghum. They eat grain, berries, seeds, and insects.
Fun Facts
- These passerine birds form family groups that may include up to five individuals, who sometimes nest close to each other.
- Males do courtship feeding during mating displays, where they feed the female to entice her into accepting him for breeding.
- During mating, the male displays his wings to attract the female’s attention by spreading them to depict their bright colors and shaking them rapidly.
7. Blue-and-yellow Tanager
The Blue-and-yellow Tanager is a species of the Tanager family, found in Argentina, the northern border of Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Andean Peru.
It prefers to live near water, wetland areas, or forest clearings and nest near streams or rivers with overhanging trees for protection against aerial predators.
The blue-and-yellow tanager is omnivorous, eating various insects, fruits, and berries. The diet consists of guava, mangoes, bananas, larger fruit, and grasshoppers.
Fun Facts
- Male and female birds take turns incubating their eggs and feeding the chicks.
- Females and males look like, but females have duller colors. Both sexes have black bills, legs, and feet.
- The bill is slightly curved with tips that allow it to function like scissors when cutting up fruit or catching insects in flight.
8. Painted Buntings
Native to North America, painted buntings are migratory birds that make their way from Central America to as far north as Canada.
Their preferred habitat includes areas near water bodies such as ponds or streams. They’re easy to spot with their colorful plumage comprising blue and yellow.
They feed on plants, chia seeds, insects, and other invertebrates by probing soft ground in search of prey or catching it in flight.
Fun Facts
- The nest is built close to the ground in small trees or shrubs (approximately 2 meters) and consists of sticks, grasses, leaves, roots, and bark.
- Females lay 3 or 4 eggs that hatch after about 12 days. Both parents care for the young for about ten days before they fledge (or learn how to fly).
- When threatened by predators like snakes or owls, they’ll sometimes produce distress calls that may attract the attention of nearby animals.
9. Nashville Warblers
Nashville warblers are small songbirds belonging to the New World warbler family in North and Central America.
The species breeds in Southern Canada, northern and western United States and migrates to the north of Central America, South California, Texas, and Mexico during the winter.
Their breeding habitat is brushy areas and is often hard to observe as they’re quiet, active at dusk, and stay at great heights in trees.
The Nashville Warbler eats mostly insects throughout the year, including grasshoppers, caterpillars, leafhoppers, spruce budworms, beetles, and flies.
Fun Facts
- Alexander Wilson first described this bird in Nashville, Tennessee, thus the name Nashville Warbler.
- They build a cup nest out of plant fibers, mosses, leaves, porcupine quills, and bark chips lined with animal hair on top of branches or vines.
- Migrating birds will travel over 600 miles daily in spring and fall, stopping only for brief periods of rest during midday hours.
10. Blue-winged Warblers
The blue-winged warbler is a small songbird of the New World warbler family, breeding in eastern North America, from southern Canada to the northern United States.
You can find blue-winged warblers in deciduous forests dominated by oak and hardwoods. It nests high in deciduous trees or low in shrubs overgrown with lichens, mosses, or leaves.
Blue-winged Warblers feast on caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, flies, ants, and beetles. They find their food or prey by picking from clusters of dead leaves.
Fun Facts
- Blue-winged warblers are sometimes confused with chestnut-sided or bay-breasted thrushes.
- Males sing only during their breeding season, but females may sing year-round.
- A clutch consists of three to six eggs, incubated for 11 to 13 days; young can fly about 17 days after hatching.
