Description
Indigo Buntings have full-looking bodies with thick, gray beaks and short tails.
These birds are about the size of a warbler, measuring 4.75 to 5.1 inches and weighing 0.4 to 0.6 ounces.
Males have a simple color scheme, being entirely blue overall.
Females have dark wings and green-brown bodies. They tend to have pale stomachs.
Immature males look identical to females. Moreover, adult males in nonbreeding plumage look similar to females but may show a few blue feathers.
Behavior
Males make themselves apparent during the breeding season, flying to the tops of obvious perches and singing their hearts out. Though Indigo Buntings tend to be solitary during the breeding season, the opposite is true during other times of the year.
For instance, these birds often gather in groups during the nonbreeding season as they peacefully coexist.
Indigo Bunting Diet
Indigo Buntings eat a varied diet that consists primarily of seeds. However, they also consume fruits, insects, and buds.
Habitat
Early successional habitats are some of the best places to find these birds. Therefore, anywhere that features young tree and shrub growth is ideal for these birds.
During the nonbreeding season, Indigo Buntings can be found in parks, fallow fields, forest edges, and other areas with early successional habitat.
Range
Indigo Buntings breed in the eastern United States and Canada in addition to the America Southwest. They are absent from states such as Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
These birds travel to Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America during the nonbreeding season.
Breeding
Males are hardly involved in the nesting process. After mating with a female, males sing to proclaim their territories and hardly assist their mate.
Consequently, females build the nest by themselves. It often takes more than a week for a female to complete nest construction. Females place nests in early successional habitats not far from the ground.
Indigo Buntings construct cup-shaped nests, with females using tree bark, grasses, and leaves to form a nest. The interior of the nest is lined with soft materials like plant fibers and mammal fur.
A female can lay as many as three broods of eggs in a single nesting season. Additionally, each clutch contains 3 to 4 eggs. It takes up to 14 days for the young to hatch from the eggs, while nestlings depart 8 to 14 days later.
Backyard Birding
Indigo Buntings are a popular backyard bird. Though these birds don’t nest in birdhouses, they often visit bird feeders during migration. They may eat sunflower seeds or a wide variety of smaller seeds.
Indigo Bunting Population Status
Populations of this species have declined by nearly 30% in the past half-century. Luckily, more than 75 million Indigo Buntings are estimated to exist today.
Indigo Bunting Facts
- One study on a population of Indigo Buntings found that 35% of nestlings were the result of extra-pair copulations.
- Males are often not entirely blue in their first breeding season. Therefore, they often mimic the songs of mature males nearby and use this tactic to secure mating opportunities.
- Results from a study examining Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism found that between 19.8 to 26.6 of Indigo Bunting nests are parasitized.
