Moist Woods Ecosystem-Indigo Bunting

Indigo Bunting

Order: Passeriformes

Family:Cardinalidae

Genus:Passerina

Species:P. cyanea

General Characteristics: The male has a breeding and non breeding plumage. In the breeding plumage the male is blue all over, deepest on head. Occasionally with some brown on back, wing, breast, or under tail, or whitish on belly. Wing feathers are dark, edged in blue. Upper bill blackish, lower mandible blue-gray.

In the non breeding plumage the male is brown with some blue edges to scattered feathers; some birds may be more blue than brown. It is often whitish on lower belly and under tail. There is some black in front of eyes. The bill is whitish to blue-gray. Gape yellowish. The female is all brown with unstreaked or with indistinct streaks on chest. The female has faint buff wingbars, and may have some blue-tinged feathers on wing, tail, or rump. The upper bill is brown to blackish, lower mandible pale. The song is a musical series of warbling notes, each phrase given in twos. The call is a sharp, thin "spit." The flight call is a high buzz.

Special Adaptations: The Indigo Bunting breeds in brushy and weedy areas along edges of cultivated land, woods, roads, power line rights-of-way, and in open deciduous woods and old fields. It winters in weedy fields, citrus orchards, and weedy cropland. The Indigo Bunting migrates at night, using the stars for guidance. It learns its orientation to the night sky from its experience as a young bird observing the stars.