Lazuli Bunting
Lazuli Bunting: Small finch, bright blue upperparts, cinnamon-brown breast and sides, white belly. Dark wings with white wing bar. Forages on ground, low in trees and bushes. Eats seeds, insects, caterpillars. Short flights, alternates rapid wing beats with brief periods of wings pulled to sides.
● Song:
"see-see-sweet", "sweet-zee-see-zeer"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Lazuli Bunting: Eats mainly seeds, but also some insects. Prefers weed and tree seeds.
● Breeding & nesting:
Lazuli Bunting: Three to five pale blue eggs are laid in a loose cup of grass and rootlets built in a bush. Eggs are incubated for 12 days by the female.
● Similar species:
Lazuli Bunting: Female Indigo Bunting lacks the conspicuous wing-bars.
● Range & Habitat:
Lazuli Bunting: Breeds from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and North Dakota south through western U.S. to southern California, northern New Mexico, western Oklahoma, and eastern Nebraska. Spends winters south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Preferred habitats include dry, brushy ravines and slopes, as well as cleared areas and weedy pastures.