Yes it’s March but this recent stretch of warm weather has me dreaming of spring migration and all the colorful birds that will soon be heading up to North Carolina. Perhaps the most stunning example of which is the Painted Bunting! There is no way to mistake this gorgeous bird for any other species with that incredible palette of indigo, red, yellow and green plumage sparkling in the sun or lighting up with a fire of their own in the canopy shadows.
Truly Painted Buntings are a “bucket list” species for photographers and birders alike. I know I can’t wait to get back out to the coast of North Carolina this spring to see them again myself! Wanna join me? I’ve got 3 tours scheduled for May & June of 2022. Space is limited on these small group trips so make sure you book early to reserve your spot. For booking details check out my tour link below!
I headed out to Ft.Fisher NC to see if the Painted Buntings had returned to the area. After about 30 minutes of searching the area (and getting chewed up by bugs lol) I finally heard his familiar call ringing out by the wood line. I hurried over to where I thought he’d be, looked up and just like that, there he was! Though it took a bit of patience to wait for him to come close enough for a good photo, it was well worth the wait to get a close up look.
With every color of the rainbow showing in his plumage, this is truly a stunning bird to photograph and see in real life. But what makes the male Painted Buntings plumage so vibrant? As it turns out it’s a combination of feather structure and three pigments which contribute to the colorful feathers found on these handsome birds: melanin, carotenoids and porphyrins.
*Melanin-Naturally produced by the birds displays as black, brown, red and pale yellow in feathers.
* Carotenoids- Birds which display the reds, oranges and yellows in their plumage is attributed to carotenoids when they eat specific plants or insects, like spiders or grasshoppers, which eat the carotenoids the birds need for their feather colors.
* Porphyrins- A modified amino acid producing pink, brown, red and green pigmentation.
*Feather structure-That bright blue to violet head color is actually a trick of the light. When sunlight passes through certain proteins and pockets of air trapped between feather barbules — tiny filaments extending from the barbs of a feather — it refracts, just like light passing through a prism.
Look for these guys in our coastal areas in scrubby wet areas, at the edges of woods and open fields. They will stick around North Carolina until October so we’ve got plenty of time to enjoy them this year. In fact, I’m planning on heading back out to this area several times this year to see them again so I’ve added new tour dates for 2021 to find the Painted Bunting, If you’d like to join me, hit the link below to see the available Ft.Fisher tour dates 🙂
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?!
