Painted Buntings

Yesterday I was sitting at my writing desk when a flash of bright blue and fiery red caught my eye. (My husband, B, recently helped me move my desk to the back of the house where I can pay closer attention to the backyard. Thank you.) I grabbed my binoculars and focused on the thorny branch of a huisache tree just beyond the window. I nearly dropped the binoculars; it was a painted bunting.

Buntings are small birds, not much larger than a finch. They live secretive lives and prefer to hide in brush and shrubs. How it is that they hide with such intensely colored feathers remains a mystery to me. I had seen one only once before, the year we moved to the Hill Country. That was seven years ago. But yesterday was a spectacular day. I happened to look out the window at just the right moment, and there he was. Breathtaking.

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Populations of painted buntings have been in decline recently. Their main source of food is native grass seed. They also love grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars.

According to the Cornell Lab, the painted bunting’s nest is cup-shaped and made from a variety of materials including grass, rootlets, and animal hair. The female, whose feathers are a lime-yellow color, builds the nest. I am keeping my eye on that huisache tree. Maybe, if I’m lucky, there will be a nest there soon. How amazing would that be?

This is another visitor that will find food and shelter in the tall grasses, shrubs, and trees of our pocket prairie. Our sanctuary.