Indigo Buntings prefer edge habitats where woodlands meet grasslands. With their scintillating color and an irrepressible urge to sing, males take charge of establishing and defending territory. Sounds exhausting doesn’t it? Like many human couples, buntings establish a division of labor. As soon as they arrive, they set right to work establishing territories, finding a mate, creating a nest, and starting that first brood of eggs. Magic feathers! If you catch it right, the blue color is stunning. Thus we see the bird’s color shifting from black to turquoise to brilliant blue depending on the light and our viewing angle (Prum et al 1998). A male Indigo Bunting’s feathers are actually black! Those structures within the feather, however, diffract the light, scattering all but the blue. All blue color is created by unique structures within each individual feather (Sibley 2020). There is no blue pigment in bird feathers. In reality, however, that bright blue is merely an illusion. Male Indigo Buntings are brilliant blue both above and below. Indigo Buntings are only solid blue bird in the eastern United States.įemale Indigo Buntings are drab brown in color as befits a Mom who raises several broods of chicks in the underbrush just a few feet above the ground. They are just five inches long, and weigh about the same as a pencil. Members of the Cardinal family, Indigo Buntings are small birds. Though they are abundant in Calvert County, we seldom stop to admire these charming blue gems. Western birds may be limited by decrease in riparian habitats.Who would think that this dazzling blue bird would go largely unnoticed? Meet the Indigo Bunting! They are one of the most common birds in the eastern United States. Vagrant: rare to Pacific states and Atlantic provinces. In fall, mainly mid-September–mid-October. Arrives on breeding grounds mid-April–early June. Rare along Gulf Coast and southern Florida. Winter: mainly Mexico through Central America, rarely to northern South America. In the Southwest, mainly found in riparian habitats. Breeding: found in brushy borders to mainly deciduous woodland throughout eastern United States. Song: a series of sweet, varied phrases, usually paired.Ĭommon. Females similar to other female passerina buntings.Ĭall: a dry, metallic pik. Males smaller than the male blue grosbeak, but lack chestnut wing bars, black on face, and dark streaks on back also has smaller bill. Immature and winter female: more rufescent overall than breeding female, with blurry streaking on breast and flanks. Whitish throat, small conical bill with straight culmen, relatively long primary projection. Summer female: dull brown, usually with 2 faint wing bars and indistinct streaking on underparts. Winter male: blue obscured by brown and buff edging mottled brown and blue early in winter. Summer male: plumage unmistakable, entirely bright blue. It sometimes hybridizes with the lazuli bunting. In the spring, the Indigo may be present in large flocks, particularly during migratory fallouts, and is often seen in brushy habitat or along weedy margins of fields and roads, where it sits up and twitches its tail. The male indigo bunting is commonly seen as a breeding species and at migration hot spots.
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