Is a “blue bird” the same as a “bluebird”？

Question

Is “blue bird” in the following quotation from *Lady Chatterley’s Lover* referring to an actual bluebird? > The lush, dark green of hyacinths was a sea, with buds rising like pale corn, while in the riding the forget-me-nots were fluffing up, and columbines were unfolding their ink-purple ruches, and there were bits of blue bird’s eggshell under a bush.

Answer 1

Blue bird is not the same as bluebird. A "blue bird" is any bird that is blue in color, whereas a "bluebird" is understood as a specific species. Nationalgeographic dot com lists three species of bluebird in North America. They do not live in Britain where the novel is set.

However, in this sentence, "blue" modifies "eggshell." It is the shells that are blue in color.