You will meet the Indigo Bunting in pastures, along the edges of swamps or along roadsides that are lined with trees or bushes anytime between the later part of May and September.
He is the deepest ultramarine blue and certainly cannot be confused with other blue birds. The front of his head and chin are a rich indigo blue, green on his back and underparts. His wings are dusky brown with blue edges. His tail feathers are also blue edged and his bill and feet are dark. His general shape is rounded and canary-like, resembling the body of the goldfinch. He is 5 ¾ inches in length.
The female is brownish in color with a faint tinge of blue on her wings and tail. The male usually has a favorite perch where he spends a large part of his time singing. The perch is nearly always at the top of a tall tree or bush. He is a showy bird and never misses an opportunity to display himself on a fence rail or a sturdy branch at the top of a bush.
The male Indigo Bunting usually has a favorite perch where he spends a large part of his time singing. The perch is nearly always at the top of a tall tree or bush. He is a showy bird and never misses an opportunity to display himself on a fence rail or a sturdy branch at the top of a bush.
The bunting belongs to the tree-loving and tree-nesting part of his tribe. His size is one of the smallest sparrows, coming between the field sparrow and song sparrow and is only slightly larger than the chipping sparrow. His song is a little warble with many canary-like notes. His call is a sharp chirp.
The Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) is vey abundant east of the Mississippi River, although it ranges throughout the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and breeds as far north as Manitoba and New Brunswick. The female lays four or five pale bluishwhite eggs in a nest made of grasses and placed at a very low part of a shrub or bush. The buntings’ food consists mainly of seeds and berries with a large amount of insects, including caterpillars, several kinds of beetles and other bugs of various kinds.
In the winter the Indigo likes to migrate to Central America. The Indigo Bunting is one of our most valuable species and should always be given rigid protection.
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