Bird name:

Varied Bunting

Passerina versicolor

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Cardinals and Grosbeaks (Cardinalidae)

Code 4

VABU

Code 6

PASVER

ITIS

179152

Breeding Location:

Wooded areas near water

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Common but local

Egg Color:

White to light blue

Number of Eggs:

3 - 4

Incubation Days:

12 - 13

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Stalks, grass, cotton, snakeskin, and paper, with lining of rootlets, grass, and hair.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Varied Bunting: Medium-sized bunting, mostly purple-blue with red wash on throat, breast, and back. Nape and eye-rings are red. Bill is gray and slightly curved down. Wings and tail are purple-blue. Female has brown upperparts with faint streaks, white underparts with brown wash on breast and sides, and blue-gray primaries and tail.

Range and Habitat

Varied Bunting: Breeds in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Breeding and Nesting

Varied Bunting: Three to four white to pale blue eggs are laid in a nest made of stalks, grass, cotton, snakeskin, and paper, lined with rootlets, grass, and hair, and built in a low tree or bush, usually 2 to 10 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Varied Bunting: Eats seeds and insects; forages in low, dense vegetation and on the ground.

Readily Eats

Safflower, Apple Slices, Suet, Millet, Peanut Kernels, Fruit

Vocalization

Varied Bunting: Song consists of a series of high-pitched musical notes. Call is a wet "spik."

Similar Species

Varied Bunting: Lazuli Bunting is bright blue with a pale cinnamon-brown breast, and white belly and wing-bars; female is dull brown, paler below, and has two pale wing-bars.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Nape

Also called the hindneck or collar, it is the back of the neck where the head joins the body.

Primaries

The primaries are the flight feathers specialized for flight. They are attached to the "hand" equivalent part of the wing.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America