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.