Thunderstorms raked the Front Range this afternoon and, between two of those storms, I went out to explore our farm. Greeted by our usual avian residents and a large flock of migrant chipping sparrows, I was about to head indoors when I spotted a bird atop one of our hackberry trees; it was a male lazuli bunting, just back from Mexico.
Unmistakable with his sky blue head and back, conical bill, white wing bars and cinnamon chest, the visitor was surveying our weedy lawns and shrub lines, perfect summer habitat for lazuli buntings. In reality, these open-country birds are best found across scrub habitat of the lower foothills or on broken grasslands of the adjacent Piedmont. While solitary birds may be encountered during migration, they are more often observed in flocks during the summer months, scouring the ground for seeds and insects.
Breeding throughout the Intermountain West, from the Colorado Front Range to California, lazuli buntings also inhabit the Great Plains where their range overlaps with that of indigo buntings; while the two species have been known to interbreed, both tend to be highly territorial when nesting. By mid-late summer, lazuli buntings begin to drift southward toward their winter homes in Mexico.
Unmistakable with his sky blue head and back, conical bill, white wing bars and cinnamon chest, the visitor was surveying our weedy lawns and shrub lines, perfect summer habitat for lazuli buntings. In reality, these open-country birds are best found across scrub habitat of the lower foothills or on broken grasslands of the adjacent Piedmont. While solitary birds may be encountered during migration, they are more often observed in flocks during the summer months, scouring the ground for seeds and insects.
Breeding throughout the Intermountain West, from the Colorado Front Range to California, lazuli buntings also inhabit the Great Plains where their range overlaps with that of indigo buntings; while the two species have been known to interbreed, both tend to be highly territorial when nesting. By mid-late summer, lazuli buntings begin to drift southward toward their winter homes in Mexico.
