Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)

The indigo bunting breeds throughout the East and in parts of the Midwest and Southwest. The species is statewide and common in Pennsylvania. Adults are about five and a half inches long, slightly smaller than a house sparrow. The male is bright blue, although he may look almost black in deep shade; the female is drab like a sparrow. Indigo buntings find food on the ground and in low bushes. 

They eat many insects, including beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers, supplemented with grass and weed seeds, grains and wild fruits. Males migrate north in late April and May, with older males, preceding younger ones and returning to their territories of past years.

The two to six-acre territories are in brushy fields, clearings in woods, woods edges and along roadsides and powerline rights-of-way. Males make moth-like display flights along territorial boundaries, flying slowly with their wings fanned and tail and head held up, using rapid, shallow wing beats while sounding a bubbly song. They also perch and broadcast a more complicated territorial/courtship song, a series of high, whistled notes described as sweet-sweet-chew-chew-seer-seer-sweet. Females, by contrast, are so shy and retiring that it’s often hard to determine when they’ve arrived on the breeding range. The male spends much time singing from prominent places, and little time helping with brood-rearing.

The female builds a neat cup-shaped nest out of leaves, dried grasses, bark strips, and other plant materials, one and a half to 10 feet up (usually no higher than three feet) in a dense shrub or a low tree, often aspen. She lays three to four eggs, which are white or bluish-white and unmarked. She incubates the clutch for 12 to 13 days, until the eggs hatch over a one- to two-day period. 

Some observers report that the male helps feed nestlings, while others say that he does not or that he gives food to the female who then carries it to the nest. Sometimes a male will have more than one mate nesting in his territory. Young indigo buntings leave the nest 10 to 12 days after hatching. In some cases, males take over the feeding of newly fledged young while females start a second brood.

Males keep singing well into August. Most pairs raise two broods. Brown-headed cowbirds often parasitize the nests, and various predators — particularly the blue jay — eat eggs and nestlings. Some researchers believe that only 30 to 50 percent of indigo bunting nests are successful. The adults molt in August. 

The male in his winter plumage looks much like the female, but he still has blue streaks in his wings and tail. Buntings migrate south from late August through October. Many individuals cross the Gulf of Mexico, reversing their spring passage. Indigo buntings winter in loose flocks in southern Florida, Central America, and northern South America. The longevity record is 10 years.

 Also Read: Lilac Breasted Roller, Most Attractive Bird / Indian Roller Bird  / Yellow Cardinal – One in Million Birds

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