Measurements
Both Sexes
- Length
- 5.1–5.9 in
13–15 cm - Wingspan
- 8.7 in
22 cm - Weight
- 0.5–0.6 oz
13–18 g
Other Names
- Bruant azuré (French)
- Gorrión cabeziazul, Gorrión de cabeza azul (Spanish)
Cool Facts
- Each male Lazuli Bunting two years of age and older sings only one song, composed of a series of different syllables, and unique to that individual. Yearling males generally arrive on the breeding grounds without a song of their own. Shortly after arriving, a young male develops its own song, which can be a novel rearrangement of syllables, combinations of song fragments of several males, or a copy of the song of one particular older male.
- Song copying by young male Lazuli Buntings can produce song neighborhoods, in which songs of neighboring males are similar.
- The Lazuli Bunting has a unique pattern of molt and migration. Individuals begin their Prebasic molt during late summer on the breeding grounds, then interrupt this molt and migrate to one of two known molting "hotspots" southern Arizona and New Mexico and northern Sonora, or the southern tip of Baja California where they finish molting before continuing their migration to wintering grounds in western Mexico.
Habitat
Open Woodland
Bushy hillsides, riparian habitats, wooded valleys, sagebrush, chaparral, open scrub, recent post-fire habitats, thickets and hedges along agricultural fields, and residential gardens.
Food
Insects
Seeds, fruits, and insects. Comes to bird feeders.
Nesting
Nesting Facts
- Clutch Size
- 1–6 eggs
- Egg Description
- Pale greenish blue.
- Condition at Hatching
- Helpless with sparse down.
Nest Description
Open cup of coarse grasses, rootlets, strips of bark, and leaves, lined with fine grass, rootlets, and animal hairs. Wrapped in silk. Placed in shrub, close to ground.
Nest Placement
Shrub
Behavior
Ground Forager
Gleans insects off foliage of trees and shrubs. Hops on ground eating seeds. Often perches on stems of grasses and other plants, removing seeds with bill. Flycatches for insects.
Conservation
Least Concern
Common and widespread. Populations appear stable.
Credits
- Greene, E., V. R. Muehter, and W. Davison. 1996. Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena). In The Birds of North America, No. 232 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.