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Birding Home | Access Updates | RBA | Dastardly Duos | AZ/NM Listserv | Tucson Area |
Tucson Audubon Society
Dastardly Duos
Lazuli, Indigo and Varied Buntings
Text by Larry Liese
Illustrations by George C. West
(Article first appeared in the July/August 2004 Vermilion Flycatcher
newsletter. To receive the Vermilion Flycatcher in the mail, become
a Friend of Tucson Audubon)
There’s some activity down in those reeds. Hmmm. Now what’s THAT bird? All brown, no back streaking so it isn’t a sparrow, …maybe a female bunting?
Good news? Bad? Wish it were a male bird so you could ID it easily? Hope it flies away so you can go on to an easier bird to ID? In this month’s column, we’ll get more comfortable with some of the female buntings observed in our area. It’s a good group to do a little work on. They’re not really that hard with just a little practice.
Lazuli Buntings (Passerina amoena) arrive in our area first, common from mid-March through early June, passing through in good numbers on their way to breeding grounds further north. They will return through southeast Arizona on their southward journey starting in mid-July and continue through early October. They prefer weedy fields and brushy areas at low elevations. Indigo Buntings (Passerina cyanea) arrive next, starting in late April. They are a little harder to spot, migrating through those same weedy areas, but breeding in riparian woodland and mesquite bosques at mid-elevations. Varied Buntings (Passerina versicolor) are fairly common but local summer visitors that arrive in late May, but they wait for summer monsoon rains before beginning breeding. Their habitat preferences are for mesquite washes and desert scrub canyons. The females of all three of these species are ‘little brown birds’ that take some care to distinguish. All are roughly the same in size and weight.
Once one has a candidate for a female bunting, what to look for? Notice the presence or absence of breast streaking, wing bars, bluish coloration on upper half of bird, shape of bill, and overall uniformity of coloration.
The female Varied Bunting is the plainest of the three, with no trace of blue, no breast streaking, no wing bars—a truly plain-looking bird! It has a strongly curved culmen (top ridge of the upper mandible), giving it a stubby-looking bill. Both Lazuli and Indigo Buntings can show blue on the rumps and other body parts, and both have wing bars—though they are more prominent on the Lazuli. Look for streaking on the breast of the Indigo and a contrasting whitish throat. The breast of the Lazuli is unstreaked, showing a warm buffy band bordered by a grayish throat above and fading to a whitish lower belly below.
If you’re out birding in spring, you should see migrating Lazuli Buntings almost anywhere – even in your back yard sometimes. Try for Indigo Buntings at the Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve or Cienega Creek, and the ‘gimme’ spot has to be California Gulch for Varied Buntings. Perhaps an easier spot to get to where they are sometimes found is Florida Wash or Proctor Road on the way to Madera Canyon. Take some good looks at the next ‘little-brown-bird-that’s-not-a-sparrow’ you happen to see; it might be a female bunting ready to make you look like a pro. Good luck!
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This page was updated on 02/21/06