Getting ready to head back out to eastern North Carolina tomorrow to go birding in the morning.
Hoping that there’s a chance that I might be lucky enough to encounter another Painted Bunting like this one that I found at Fort Fisher NC last month.
Seeing one of these colorful birds is such a treat! Although I’ve encountered them many times over the years, it never gets old.

When I’m out looking for them, I listen for their high pitched buzzzzed zeeeep calls from ground level to about 20 ft in the brush.
Painted Buntings can be found in open areas along the coast of North Carolina (and throughout the southern states) catching grasshoppers, weevils and other beetles, caterpillars, bugs, spiders, snails, wasps and flies.
During non-breeding months of early spring and late summer, they prefer to eat seeds and may be found visiting your feeders on a somewhat regular basis.
By the way, as colorful as these birds are, their favorite seed is plain as can be lol!
Fill your feeders with white millet, a seed that is commonly snubbed by other birds yet abundant in the most basic of mixed seed blends.
How cool is that?!

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the fabulous full frame SLR, the @canonusa
#5Ds