A Solitary Lazuli Bunting

Thunderstorms raked the Front Range this afternoon and, betwixt ii of those storms, I went out to explore our farm.  Greeted past times our park avian residents too a large flock of migrant chipping sparrows, I was close to caput indoors when I spotted a plane atop 1 of our hackberry trees; it was a manful someone lazuli bunting, only dorsum from Mexico.

Unmistakable amongst his heaven blueish caput too back, conical bill, white fly bars too cinnamon chest, the visitor was surveying our weedy lawns too shrub lines, perfect summertime habitat for lazuli buntings.  In reality, these open-country birds are best institute across scrub habitat of the lower foothills or on broken grasslands of the side past times side Piedmont.  While lonely birds may hold upwards encountered during migration, they are to a greater extent than oft observed inwards flocks during the summertime months, scouring the Blue Planet for seeds too insects.

Breeding throughout the Intermountain West, from the Colorado Front Range to California, lazuli buntings besides inhabit the Great Plains where their hit overlaps amongst that of indigo buntings; spell the ii species convey been known to interbreed, both tend to hold upwards highly territorial when nesting.  By mid-late summer, lazuli buntings start to drift southward toward their wintertime homes inwards Mexico.