Indigo Bunting

Indigo Bunting male

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Indigo Bunting, female

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

A brilliantly blue bird of old fields and roadsides, the Indigo Bunting prefers abandoned land to urban areas, intensely farmed areas, or deep forests.

Description

• Small songbird.
• Short, thick bill.
• Male brilliant dark blue all over.
• Female dull brown.

• Size: 12-13 cm (5-5 in)
• Wingspan: 19-22 cm (7-9 in)
• Weight: 12-18 g (0.42-0.64 ounces)

Sex Differences

Male in breeding plumage brilliant blue, female dull brown.

Sound

Song a musical series of warbling notes, each phrase given in twos. Call a sharp, thin "spit." Flight call a high buzz.

Conservation Status

Abundant. May be declining slightly in Southeast.

Other Names

Passerin indigo (French)
Azulito, Gorrión, Ruicito (Spanish)

Cool Facts

• The Indigo Bunting migrates at night, using the stars for guidance. It learns its orientation to the night sky from its experience as a young bird observing the stars.
• Experienced adult Indigo Buntings can return to their previous breeding sites when held captive during the winter and released far from their normal wintering area.

• The sequences of notes in Indigo Bunting songs are unique to local neighborhoods. Males a few hundred meters apart generally have different songs. Males on neighboring territories often have the same or nearly identical songs.

• Indigo and Lazuli buntings defend territories against each other in the western Great Plains where they occur together, share songs, and sometimes interbreed.

Sources used to construct this page:

Payne, R. B. 1992. Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea). In The Birds of North America, No. 4 (A. Poole, Peter Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC; The American Ornithologists' Union.