Indigo Bunting
Length:
4.7–5.1 in
Wing Span:
7.5–8.7 in
Natural Habitat:
Indigo Buntings breed in brushy and weedy areas. They’re common on the edges of woods and fields; along roads, streams, rivers, and powerline cuts; in logged forest plots, brushy canyons, and abandoned fields where shrubby growth is returning. While migrating and in winter, Indigo Buntings forage in fields, lawns, grasslands, rice fields, as well as in shrubs, and trees.
Features:
Indigo Buntings are small (roughly sparrow-sized), stocky birds with short tails and short, thick, conical bills. In flight, the birds appear plump with short, rounded tails.
Season:
The birds tend to migrate more or less due south, so buntings that breed in the eastern part of their breeding range also winter in the eastern part of the winter range, while western breeders are western winterers.