A Tanka

~

unique in color,

depending on how the sun,

shines its light on him,

a deep blue to purple sheen,

is how seen, his name Bunting

~

 Today’s Feathered Friend:

Indigo Bunting

Male:

`deep-colored bright blue overall (breeding plumage)

`only North American small finch to appear blue all over

`blue-purple head

`dark blue to black lores

`blue edging to blackish wings and tail

`dark gray conical bill

Female:

`plain, but beautiful brown

`two tawny buff wing bars

`short, gray, conical bill

`blue-edged feathers on wings and tail

Facts:

`populations are expanding with the creation of disturbed habitat after logging, highway and power line    construction and from farmland abandonment (yeah to expanding)

`likes forest edges, roadsides, hedges, dry brush lands, orchards, open woods, creeks and rivers

`eats grasshoppers, beetles, weevils, aphids, cicadas, cankerworms, span worms, flies, dandelion seeds, aster, thistle, grasses, grains, berries and more

`nests in raspberry and other shrubs

`song is a sweet-sweet, where-where, here-here, see-it/see-it (pretty melody)

`many are killed, while migrating at night, striking power lines and tall buildings (wind farms next?)

`neotropical migrant, flight speed measured at 20 m.p.h

`common hosts to cowbird parasitism 😦

**If  you want to learn more about the Indigo Bunting, please go to The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds, Smithsonian Handbooks, Birds of North America and Stokes Field Guide to Birds. I used these sources for my information.

Added to my Birding Life List

on o7/12/88

Sky Rocket Road, Loveland, Colorado

(with my amazing birding mentor- Ann Means)

 Photos taken at South Llano River State Park in April of 2014 while sitting in a bird blind. I was using my Canon 70D with Canon EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 lens (no stabilization).

Links:

Paying-Ready-Attention (Wild Bird Wednesday)

http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com

Prairie Birder (Feathers on Friday)

http://prairiebirder.wordpress.com