Lazuli bunting
Lazuli bunting | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Cardinalidae |
Genus: | Passerina |
Species: | P. amoena
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Binomial name | |
Passerina amoena (Say, 1822)
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Breeding
Migration
Nonbreeding
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The lazuli bunting (Passerina amoena) is a North American songbird named for the gemstone lapis lazuli.
Description
Measurements:[2]
- Length: 5.1–5.9 in (13–15 cm)
- Weight: 0.5–0.6 oz (13–18 g)
- Wingspan: 8.7 in (22 cm)
The male is easily recognized by its bright blue head and back (lighter than the closely related indigo bunting), its conspicuous white wingbars, and its light rusty breast and white belly. The color pattern may suggest the eastern and western bluebirds, but the smaller size (13–15 cm or 5–5.9 inches long), wingbars, and short and conical bunting bill quickly distinguish it. The female is brown, grayer above and warmer underneath, told from the female indigo bunting by two thin and pale wingbars and other plumage details.
Call
The song is a high, rapid, strident warble, similar to that of the indigo bunting but longer and with less repetition.
Distribution and habitat
Lazuli buntings breed mostly west of the 100th meridian from southern Canada to northern Texas, central New Mexico and Arizona, and southern California. On the Pacific coast their breeding range extends south to extreme northwestern Baja California. They migrate to southeastern Arizona and Mexico. Their habitat is brushy areas and sometimes weedy pastures, generally well-watered, and sometimes in towns.
Diet
They eat mostly seeds and insects. They may feed conspicuously on the ground or in bushes, but singing males are often very elusive in treetops.
Breeding
It makes a loose cup nest of grasses and rootlets placed in a bush. It lays three or four pale blue eggs. In the eastern and southern part of its range, it often hybridizes with the indigo bunting.
Gallery
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Immature male lazuli bunting.
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Upper figure, male; lower, female
References
- ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Passerina amoena". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22723948A94841556. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22723948A94841556.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ "Lazuli Bunting Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
- Peterson, Roger Tory (1990). Western Birds. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-51424-X.
- Sibley, David (2000). The Sibley Guide to Birds. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45122-6.
External links
- Lazuli bunting species account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Lazuli bunting - Passerina amoena - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Lazuli bunting videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- Lazuli bunting photo gallery VIREO (with photo of egg clutch)
- Articles with short description
- Short description matches Wikidata
- IUCN Red List least concern species
- Articles with 'species' microformats
- Commons link is on Wikidata
- Taxonbars with 20–24 taxon IDs
- Passerina
- Native birds of Western Canada
- Native birds of the Western United States
- Birds of Mexico
- Birds described in 1823
- Birds of the Sierra Madre Occidental