General

Blue Bunting: Small, stocky bunting with stout, black bill. Male is deep blue overall with black face and upper breast. Female is uniformly brown with gray bill.

Range and Habitat

Blue Bunting: Breeds in Mexico and along the Texas-Mexico border.

Breeding and Nesting

Blue Bunting: Two white to light blue eggs are laid in a nest made of grass and rootlets, lined with finer materials, and built in a bush or low in a small tree. Incubation ranges from 11 to 13 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Blue Bunting: Eats seeds and insects; forages in brushy forest understory, dense scrubby thickets, and on the ground.

Readily Eats

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

Vocalization

Blue Bunting: Song is a varied, plaintive trilling of "see-you, see-you, see yee-suee-se-se-see" with one to two introductory notes followed by a trill, then fading away. Call is a metallic "chink."

Similar Species

Blue Bunting: Male Blue Grosbeak is bright purple-blue with two brown wingbars. Female is brown with occasional blue feathers on upperparts and two brown wingbars.