Lazuli bunting

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Lazuli bunting

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1) [1]

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Cardinalidae

Genus: Passerina

Species: P. amoena

Binomial name

Passerina amoena
 (Say, 1823)

The lazuli bunting (Passerina amoena) is a North American songbird named for the

gemstone lapis lazuli.
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 and western
bluebirds, 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.
The song is a high, rapid, strident warble, similar to that of the indigo bunting but
longer and with less repetition.

Upper figure, male; lower, female

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 migrate to southeastern Arizona and Mexico. Their habitat is brushy
areas and sometimes weedy pastures, generally well-watered, and sometimes in
towns.
These birds eat mostly seeds and insects. They may feed conspicuously on the
ground or in bushes, but singing males are often very elusive in treetops.
This bird makes a loose cup nest of grasses and rootlets placed in a bush. It lays
three or four pale blue eggs. In the eastern and southern part of its range, it often
hybridizes with the indigo bunting.
Measurements:[2]

 Length: 5.1-5.9 in (13-15 cm)

 Weight: 0.5-0.6 oz (13-18 g)
 Wingspan: 8.7 in (22 cm)