Not Just Festive Decoration

Saturday-Sunday, April 26-27, 2025

Not Just Festive Decoration

Today’s special animal friend is the indigo bunting, Passerina cyanea, a songbird of the Cardinalidae family which is common in North America this time of year. The indigo buntings you might be seeing today — males in their brilliantly blue breeding plumage — have recently migrated from south Florida, central Mexico, the Caribbean islands, Central America, or Colombia. They will remain in the United States until September, when they return to their wintering habitats.

Indigo buntings live in semi-open habitats, including brushy roadsides, second-growth forest, and agricultural field margins. Forest clearance and increased agricultural exploitation have been shown to increase indigo bunting populations. In their summer range, indigo buntings’ diet is heavy on insects and arachnids, but they also enjoy berries and seeds. In their winter habitat, grass seeds are the most common food.

Breeding pairs of indigo buntings are monogamous but not necessarily faithful. This pattern is common among the Cardinalidae family. In addition to flaunting his bright feathers, the male claims territory and attracts females with a cheerful song:

Females, who are an inconspicuous brown shade, build a nest of leaves, grasses, animal hair, and spider webs, where they usually lay three or four eggs. The mother sits on the eggs about two weeks and feeds the hatchlings in the nest for about another two weeks, until they are fledged. Two clutches per season is typical. Brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds is not unusual: the cowbird will leave an egg to be incubated by the bunting mother, and the cowbird hatchling will compete for food with the bunting babies.

The oldest known indigo bunting was over 13 years old, but research suggests that it is unusual for them to reach six years old. I said “suggests” because the study samples are too small to do more than hint at population averages. Research into their migrations has shown that indigo buntings navigate using the stars. The majority of buntings fly over the Gulf of Mexico to sites in Mexico or South America.

Threats to the species in their breeding range include building and vehicle impacts. Reforestation efforts and the reduction in agricultural land use reduce their preferred habitat. In their winter range, especially in Mexico, they are trapped for sale as cage birds. Also, it is common for songbirds to be hunted in many parts of the buntings’ winter range. In the southwestern United States, they hybridize with the Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena.

Although their populations have declined in recent decades, indigo buntings are still very numerous, with a population estimated at 28 million. They are a species of Least Concern. If you live in their summer range and would like to see them, provide live mealworms at your feeders!