PAINTED BUNTING
(Passerina ciris)
The male Painted Bunting presents an amazing combination of colors: a green back, deep blue head, and orange chest and belly. The female is all green, presenting bright green above and light green below. Complete migration, to Mexico and Central America. All About Birds offers this additional descriptive information: With their vivid fusion of blue, green, yellow, and red, male Painted Buntings seem to have flown straight out of a child’s coloring book. Females and immatures are a distinctive bright green with a pale eyering. These fairly common songbirds breed in the coastal Southeast and in the south-central U.S., where they often come to feeders. They are often caught and sold illegally as cage birds, particularly in Mexico and the Caribbean, a practice that puts pressure on their breeding populations.
Dorothy and I saw our first Painted Bunting on our 2018 visit to South Llano River State Park. I will never forget the joy and amazement I felt at seeing this bird for the first time. I had no idea a bird this beautiful existed in the wild in my home state. As I began to bird watch in earnest during the 2020 pandemic, I was grateful to see Painted Buntings on several occasions at Warbler Woods Sanctuary and at Crescent Bend Nature Preserve, both in Cibolo, Texas. I hope you enjoy my photos of the magnificent Painted Bunting!
In late April/early May of 2022, I took a two + week trip to New Mexico and Utah, primarily to visit rock art sites, and archaeological ruins. I knew I would be missing the prime migration season back home, so on the way out and on the way back I stopped at South Llano River State Park (SLRSP) in Junction, Texas. On the way out, I watched and photographed a Golden-cheeked Warbler and a Spotted Towhee, both life birds for me. But I saw no Painted Buntings on that day. On May 1, 2022, as I returned from Utah, I stopped once again at SLRSP, hoping to see some Painted Buntings…I was not disappointed! Here are a few of the pictures I took that day of the beautiful male Painted Buntings.
Painted Bunting “Cool Facts” From All About Birds…
- The western population of Painted Buntings begins its fall migration before molting, molts in staging areas in northern Mexico, then continues to migrate further south. This migration-molt pattern is common among waterfowl but very rare among songbirds. In contrast to the western population, the eastern population of Painted Buntings molts on its breeding grounds before migration.
- The French name of the Painted Bunting, nonpareil, means “without equal,” a reference to the bird’s dazzling plumage.
- In 1841 John James Audubon reported that “thousands” of the colorful birds were caught every spring and shipped from New Orleans to Europe, where they fetched more than 100 times the price when sold as cage birds. They are still illegally trapped and sold in large numbers in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and to a lesser extent in Florida, despite efforts by conservationists to curb illegal trade.
- The oldest recorded wild Painted Bunting was at least 12 years old, as reported from a Florida banding study.