Painted Bunting

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The Painted Bunting males, with their fusion of blue, green, yellow, and red, seem to have flown straight out of a child’s coloring book. The females and immature males are a distinctive bright green with a pale eye ring. In 1841 John James Audubon reported that thousands of the colorful birds were caught every spring and shipped form New Orleans to Europe to be sold at high prices as a caged bird.  This still occurs today in Mexico despite effort by conservationists to curb illegal trade.

The females build nests in dense bushed, vines or low in trees, made from a weave of grass, weeds, leaves and animal hair. She lays from 3-5 eggs, and they incubate for only 11-12 days. Young nestlings are fed by the female and can leave the nest about 12-14 days after hatching. The nest may be hacked by Cowbirds causing the smaller bird to raise the Cowbird offspring often at the expense of the fledgling buntings.

They eat mostly seed and insects and sometimes berries and fruits. They usually forage on the ground or in low shrubs. Painted Buntings migrate but may stay nearby if they have a good source of food, particularly from bird feeders.

The sight of the Painted Buntings bold red back and underside, interrupted by wings of green in several shadings, and topped by a deep full bodied blue head, simply will not fade. Because of their size, a length of 6” or less, you have to work to see these beautiful birds.