Lazuli Bunting
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Cardinalidae
Genus: Passerina
Species: amoena
**Audio Below**
Description
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Length: 5.5"
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Wing span: 8.75"
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Weight: 0.54oz (15.5 grams)
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Small songbird with a short thick bill
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Upper bill is black while the lower part is light blue
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Eyes, legs & feet are black
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Breeding males are blue on the head and back, red chest & white belly
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Females and non-breeding males are a dull brown color with 2 distinct wingbars
Factoids:
- Each male Lazuli Bunting two years of age and older sings only one song, composed of a series of different syllables, and unique to that individual. Yearling males generally arrive on the breeding grounds without a song of their own. Shortly after arriving, a young male develops its own song, which can be a novel rearrangement of syllables, combinations of song fragments of several males, or a copy of the song of one particular older male
- Song copying by young male Lazuli Buntings can produce song neighborhoods, in which songs of neighboring males are similar
- The Lazuli Bunting has a unique pattern of molt and migration. Individuals begin their Prebasic molt during late summer on the breeding grounds, then interrupt this molt and migrate to one of two known molting hotspots where they finish molting before continuing their migration to wintering grounds in western Mexico
All photographs and audio clips are ©Jamie Mullin 2006
Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology & The Sibley Guide to Birds.
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