Lazuli Bunting

The Lazuli Bunting is a small, colorful songbird of brushy habitats across the western United States and southwestern Canada, closely related to the eastern Indigo Bunting, with which it can hybridize where their ranges overlap. Breeding males show a distinctive combination of sky-blue upperparts, a warm orange-cinnamon breast band, and a crisp white belly, while females and non-breeding birds are much plainer, brownish-gray with a subtle blue tinge on the wings and tail.

Adult male feathers on the head, throat, and back show a bright turquoise or sky-blue that can shift slightly with light angle due to feather microstructure rather than pigment. The breast shows a band of warm orange-cinnamon that contrasts against the crisp white belly and undertail. Two neat white wing bars stand out clearly against the blue wing feathers, a useful mark distinguishing this species from the wing-barless Indigo Bunting. Females and immatures are grayish-brown overall, generally paler below than Indigo Bunting females, often showing at least faint blue edging on the wing and tail feathers and sometimes a hint of the wing bars seen in males.

Breeding males show the full blue-orange-white pattern, while non-breeding males in fall and winter can appear duller and more scalloped as fresh feathers with brownish edges partly obscure the blue beneath, brightening again by spring as the pale feather tips wear away. Females remain grayish-brown year-round with only subtle seasonal variation. First-year males may show a mix of brown and blue feathering before acquiring the full adult pattern.

Lazuli Buntings breed in brushy foothills, streamside thickets, chaparral, and open woodland edges across the western United States and southwestern Canada. The species is migratory, wintering in Mexico, and can be found during migration in a wide variety of shrubby and weedy habitats.

This species forages on or near the ground for seeds and invertebrates, often within dense shrub cover. Males sing a bright, varied, buzzy warbling song from exposed perches to defend territory. Nests are cup-shaped, built low in shrubs by the female. Where their ranges meet, Lazuli and Indigo Buntings can hybridize, sometimes producing individuals with intermediate plumage features.