Birds of Central Oklahoma

All birds Cardinals and Allies

Painted Bunting, adult male
Adult male Photo by Karen Szafrajda. CC BY, via iNaturalist.

Painted Bunting

Passerina ciris

Here May to August.

Recorded by 🐦‍⬛ Randolph (Randy) King 🐦‍⬛. CC BY-NC, via iNaturalist, trimmed and volume evened out.

Look for

  1. Males have a blue head and a red throat and chest.
  2. On males, a bright green back, with a red patch low on the back just above the tail.
  3. Females are green on top and yellow-green underneath, with a pale ring around the eye.

A little about it

Painted buntings come here for the summer. The first ones show up in late April, and May is the best month to see them. By fall, they've flown south, most likely to Mexico and Central America.

They eat mostly seeds and bugs. A bunting may fly up, grab a plant stem, and pull it down to the ground. Then it holds the stem with one foot and eats the seeds.

The female builds a cup nest in thick bushes or vines, usually 3 to 9 feet up. She lays 3 or 4 eggs and feeds the babies all by herself. The babies leave the nest about 2 weeks after they hatch.

As far as anyone knows, only the males sing. A male picks a high perch, half hidden in the leaves, and sings to claim his space. Males sometimes get into real fights, probably over the edges of their spaces.

Fun fact

In French, this bird is called "nonpareil." That means "having no equal." It fits the male, with all his bright colors.

When it's here

Taller bars mean more sightings. Most often seen in May.

How big

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About 5 inches. About the size of a sparrow.

Where to look

Thick, low bushes at the edges of woods, along brushy roadsides, and in gardens. They like to hide, so look low for a flash of color.

  • Yards and parks
  • In the woods
  • Fields and roadsides

People have spotted it at Lake Stanley Draper, Lake Thunderbird State Park, Arcadia Lake.

Could it be something else?

  • Female American Goldfinch

    In summer, she's yellow-green too. A female Painted Bunting is greener on her back and has a pale ring around her eye.

  • Young Painted Bunting

    Young buntings start out much duller than the grown-ups, even duller than the female. A very plain little bird low in a bush in summer could be a young one.

More photos

Painted Bunting, female
Female Photo by kcthetc1. CC0, via iNaturalist.

Where these facts come from