Indigo Bunting

Passerina cyaneaOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Cardinals and Grosbeaks (Cardinalidae)
Indigo Bunting Portrait
  Splitbar
Range Map for Indigo Bunting

Overview

Indigo Bunting: Small finch with brilliant, almost iridescent, blue plumage. Crown is darker blue with a purple tint. Wings and tail are black with blue edges. Feeds on insects, larvae, grains, seeds, berries. Short flights low over vegetation, alternates rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides.

Range and Habitat

Indigo Bunting: Breeds from southeastern Saskatchewan east to New Brunswick, and south to central Arizona, central Texas, the Gulf coast, and northern Florida. Spends winters in southern Florida and in the tropics. Preferred habitats include brushy slopes, abandoned farmlands, old pastures and fields grown to scrub, woodland clearings, and forest edges adjacent to fields.

Splitbar

Listen:

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Voice Text

"sweet-sweet, sweeter-sweeter, here-here"

Splitbar

Related Birds:

Lazuli Bunting
Painted Bunting
Blue Grosbeak
Mountain Bluebird
Varied Bunting
Blue Bunting
.

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Family Cardinals and Grosbeaks (Cardinalidae)_blue
Species Passerina cyanea
Length5.25 - 5.75 Inches
Wingspan8.5 Inches

Indigo Bunting

Indigo Bunting: Small finch with brilliant, almost iridescent, blue plumage. Crown is darker blue with a purple tint. Wings and tail are black with blue edges. Feeds on insects, larvae, grains, seeds, berries. Short flights low over vegetation, alternates rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides.

● Song: "sweet-sweet, sweeter-sweeter, here-here"

● Foraging & Feeding: Indigo Bunting: Feeds on seeds, forbs, buds, insects, and berries; forages in trees, shrubs, and on the ground.

● Breeding & nesting: Indigo Bunting: Three or four white to light blue eggs, sometimes with brown or purple spotting, are laid in a compact woven cup of leaves and grass built in a sapling or bush in relatively thick vegetation, usually within a few feet of the ground. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Indigo Bunting: Blue Grosbeak is larger with brown wing-bars. Female Lazuli Bunting has white wing-bars. Female Varied Bunting lacks streaks below.

Flight Pattern

Short flights wih rapid wing beats.
Indigo Bunting Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Indigo Bunting: Breeds from southeastern Saskatchewan east to New Brunswick, and south to central Arizona, central Texas, the Gulf coast, and northern Florida. Spends winters in southern Florida and in the tropics. Preferred habitats include brushy slopes, abandoned farmlands, old pastures and fields grown to scrub, woodland clearings, and forest edges adjacent to fields.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
PopulationFairly common to common
MigrationMigratory
Weight0.5 Ounces