Attract Indigo BuntingsĪttract them to your backyard with small seeds such as nyjer and thistle. They lay around four eggs, which take two weeks to hatch and another week or two for the young to leave the nest. Females make the nest from grass, leaves, and plant stems woven together and held with spiders’ webs. Nests of Indigo Buntings are low to the ground and hidden in vegetation. You can find Indigo Buntings in weedy fields and shrubby areas foraging for seeds and insects. Indigo Buntings migrate far from breeding grounds in eastern US states, southeastern Canada, and southern US states to winter grounds in Florida, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Females are brown, darker on the back, and lighter underneath. In addition, ABC's work with forestry partners to promote sustainable working forests directly benefits the Indigo Bunting and many other birds that nest in young forests.Indigo Buntings are small birds, with the males being bright blue with streaks of black in the wings and tail. We address the multiple hazards faced by Indigo Buntings and other migrants through our policy programs, including Bird-safe Windows and Cats Indoors. A major culprit is habitat loss on both breeding and wintering grounds.ĪBC is working to halt these decreases through its BirdScapes program, which aims to protect habitat for still-common species such as Indigo Bunting, as well as birds at greater risk like Golden-winged Warbler. Saving Common and Rare MigrantsĪlthough the Indigo Bunting still appears to be abundant throughout its range, Partners in Flight surveys show population decreases - a scenario increasingly seen in other once-common bird species such as Wood Thrush and Common Yellowthroat. The buntings can be beneficial to farmers, as they eat many insect pests and weed seeds. They feast on spiders and small insects during the summer, getting the extra protein they need for successful nesting, then eat seeds, buds, and berries during migration and in winter. Indigo Buntings, like their close relatives the Painted and Varied Buntings, alter their diet seasonally. Females, juveniles, and males in winter plumage are an unassuming tawny brown. Only males have blue plumage, and then only during their breeding season. Like Black-throated Blue Warbler and Scarlet Tanager, the Indigo Bunting is a sexually dimorphic species. Similar to Song Sparrows, juvenile male Indigo Buntings observe and imitate older males when learning to sing, later developing their own unique phrasings. Their sharp "spik" call note is often heard and easy to recognize. Even on the hottest summer days, they can be spotted warbling their sweet, double-noted song from treetops, telephone wires, and other elevated perches. Male Indigo Buntings are persistent singers. Protect buntings and other birds by pledging to keep cats safely contained. Many fall victim to collisions with windows, wind turbines, and communications towers, or are preyed upon by introduced predators, particularly cats. Unfortunately, Indigo Buntings must fly through a gauntlet of threats during their twice-yearly travels. The results proved that Indigo Buntings (and other nocturnal migrants) use the movement of the stars to navigate during migration. Scientists placed caged buntings inside a planetarium, manipulated star patterns, and noted the directions the birds attempted to fly in response. Indigo Buntings played a central role in a series of orientation and navigation experiments conducted on migratory birds during the 1960s. In poor lighting, the bunting's glorious colors disappear and it becomes a plain, dark-colored finch.īut Indigo Buntings are more than a treat for the eyes - this species also helped reveal some important secrets about how birds migrate. But these beautiful colors are illusory: Like the iridescence of hummingbirds and the blue plumage of other species such as Eastern Bluebird, the male Indigo Bunting owes its glorious appearance to an optical trick - the diffraction of light through its feathers. A male Indigo Bunting in breeding plumage is a glorious symphony of shimmering blues, turquoises, and purples.
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