Painted Bunting
Latin Name: Passerina ciris
Species: Birds
Conservation Status: S3 - Vulnerable
Painted buntings are medium, finchlike birds with vibrant coloration. Males have a blue head, green back, red belly and back, and a stubby, thick seed-eating bill. Females and immature painted buntings are uniform with a bright yellow-green body and a pale eye ring.
Range & Habitat (map)
In the U.S., breeding grounds of painted buntings are in the south-central U.S. and along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to central Florida. The eastern population migrates at night to southern Florida and some Caribbean islands. They can be spotted in shrubs and brushy vegetation in open areas, including the edges of forests, fields, and backyards.
Diet
Throughout most of the year, painted buntings forage on the ground for on seeds. These seeds include bristle grass, pigweed, wood sorrel, spurge, panic grass, St. John’s wort, sedges, dock, pine, rose, wheat, or fig. At times, painted buntings are seen flying up to a stem and dragging it to the ground, using one foot to hold it in place while eating the seeds. During the breeding season, painting buntings switch to foraging insects in trees near marshes. Painted buntings will consume grasshoppers, weevils and other beetles, caterpillars, bugs, spiders, snails, wasps, and flies. They are even seen stealing prey from spiderwebs.
Life History
During breeding season, male painted buntings are often seen perching out in the open to sing their jumbled songs. When courting, male painted buntings will spread their feathers, like a little turkey. Females will construct a nest that is 2 inches wide and 1.5 inches deep, that is firmly attached to a support plant. They weave together a combination of weed stems, leaf skeletons, bark, twigs, rootlets, grasses, and sometimes paper and rag scraps, binding the materials together with cobwebs. Females lay 3-4 eggs and have 1 brood. Eggs are incubated for 11-12 days and the chicks nest for 9 days.
Male painted buntings are extremely territorial. Males will fight each other by pecking, grappling, and striking each other with their wings. Fights usually end with lost feathers, wounds, eye damage, and sometimes death. Males will even dive at females.
Significance
Painted buntings are loved by recreational birders for their vibrant coloration, and their relatively limited range makes them a special sight for birders visiting from all over the U.S. While some of these birds can be found in South Carolina year-round, we start to see more of them in the spring and summer, making their appearance a symbol of warmer weather to come.
Threats & How You Can Help
A major threat to painted buntings is the loss of habitat due to urban development. Painted buntings were once popular cage birds, but cannot legally be kept as pets in the Americas anymore due to their protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Still, they are often trapped and sold illegally on their wintering grounds in southern Mexico and Central America. If you’re trying to attract painted buntings to your backyard, be sure to plant native plants and use high-quality seed in your feeders. Keeping cats indoors is also critical to protecting songbird populations.