The lazuli bunting ( Passerina amoena) is a songbird named for the gemstone lapis lazuli.
Description
Measurements:
-
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 bluebird and
, 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
bird migration 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
and
. 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
bird egg. In the eastern and southern part of its range, it often hybridizes with the indigo bunting.
==Gallery==
External links
