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I am happy to report that the indigo bunting is again visiting our bird feeder. There appear to be two different males for one is more intensely colored than the other. The older a bird gets the more brilliant the plumag;e. The blue of this little finch is so startling that I gasp and call for Lee each time I see it.
Last year a number of readers wrote or telephoned to report that the bird had appeared at their feeders. I hope the blue bunting is again making an appearance. This year we have been seeing the female of this species; a brown bird with no streaks, spots or wing bars. She is just a little brown bird and is as welcome here as her fine mate.
During the early days of May I spent time on a small island just off the coast of South Carolina. There I both saw and heard a close, and even more brilliant colored relative, of the indigo bunting. The male painted bunting is a bird so startlingly beautiful that in the 19th century it was called by the French word, nonpariel; meaning “without an equal.”
That it surely is for the male carriers five colors: redpurple, blue, pale yellowEeen,
deep purple and scart.
In south Texas it is called Cinco colores — five colors — by Spanish speaking natives.
I usually agree with Roger Tory Peterson but part ways with him on his description of this five-inch bird. In his Field Guide To The Birds, he calls it “The most gaudily colored North American bird:” The word “gaudy” carries the connotation of flashy, garish and tawdry. In other words, cheap and in bad taste. The painted bunting deserves none of those adjectives.
The painted bunting is truly beautiful when seen in good light up close or with an adequate pair of binoculars. The bird is somewhat shy and is best seen when singing on an exposed perch as he proclaims his territorial rights or to tempt the female, an all green bird as different from her brilliant mate as the male
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