Nevada Symbols, State Bird & State Flower

Adopted in 1967.

During the 1967 session (April 12th) of the legislature, Clark County Assemblyman Stan Irwin introduced a bill to designate the Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) as the Nevada state bird. The bill passed both houses and was signed by the governor on April 4th.
NRS 235.060

The Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) lives in the Nevada high country and destroys many harmful insects. It is a member of the thrush family and its song is a clear, short warble like the caroling of a robin. The male is azure blue with a white belly, while the female is brown with a bluish rump, tail, and wings.

Identification

• Length: 6 inches
• Thin bill
• Most often seen in open habitats

Adult male

• Bright blue plumage; brightest on upperparts
• Lacks any brown coloration

Female:

• Blue wings and tail-duller than male
• Remainder of plumage gray
• Eye ring

Juvenile

• Blue wings and tail-duller than male
• White eye ring
• Spotted underparts

Adopted on March 20, 1917.

Nevada's state flower is sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). It has small yellow and white flowers in the spring grows abundantly in the deserts of the Western United States. A member of the wormwood family, sagebrush is a branching bush (1 to 12 feet high) and grows in regions where other kinds of vegetation cannot subsist. Known for its pleasant aroma, its gray-green twigs, and pale yellow flowers, sagebrush is an important winter food for sheep and cattle Native Americans used sagebrush leaves as medicine and sagebrush bark for weaving mats. Adopted March 20, 1917

Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) grows abundantly in the deserts of the Western United States. A member of the wormwood family, sagebrush is a branching bush (1 to 12 feet high) and grows in regions where other kinds of vegetation cannot subsist. Known for its pleasant aroma, its gray-green twigs, and pale yellow flowers, sagebrush is an important winter food for sheep and cattle.

Leaf: Simple, alternate (but typically clustered at each node), persistent (but some leaves are drought deciduous). Small (1/2 to 2 inches long) and narrowly wedge-shaped with a 3-lobed apex; silvery-green and pubescent on both surfaces; strong scented; sessile.

Flower: Monoecious. Very small, yellowish, and tubular; borne in small heads on long, upright spikes; some flowers perfect and some imperfect.

Fruit: Very small achenes; 4 or 5-sided or ribbed

Twig: Young twigs are slender, silvery-gray, and pubescent, becoming grayish-brown as they age.

Bark: Grayish-brown, shreddy, and splitting lengthwise.

Form: An upright, evergreen shrub commonly growing from several to 15 feet tall. Silvery-green and strongly scented with gray shreddy bark.