Lazuli Bunting

Passerina amoena

A delightful summer sight to see over here in the western part of the state is the Lazuli Bunting. The Lazuli Bunting is mostly an eastern Washington bird, but can be found locally west of the Cascades at Fort Lewis (Pierce County), in the Vancouver area (Clark County), along the Skagit and Cowlitz Rivers, and in south King County on the Muckleshoot Prairies around Enumclaw.

Male Lazuli Buntings are conspicuous in summer, singing in the open, but the plainer brown females are far more elusive as they tend their nests in the thick bushes. When trying to identify this bird, you will find that breeding males are unmistakable: bright cerulean above with bold white wingbars, white belly, and orange breast. Females are plain buffy brown with paler wingbars and slightly brighter orangey breast.

To find them, walk along a trail or road through brushy hillsides and chaparral, or edges of riparian habitats and shrubby edges of weedy fields, as these are favored haunts for this species. Most are at lower elevations on the east slopes of the Cascades but good numbers occur in the Columbia Basin, too. Once you are in the right habitat, listen for their fast jumbling song and look high in tall shrubs for a singing male. Males tend to be quite vocal and defensive of their territories especially early in the breeding season. So to catch a singing male, be sure to go looking in April in the southern part of their range or in May in the northern part of their range. They’ll be easier to hear in April through June, but these birds are still fairly visible for the rest of the summer months.

Insects form much of their diet in the summer, especially the youngsters. On their wintering grounds, seeds are a mainstay. Lazuli Buntings also frequent bird feeders, especially ones that offer white proso millet, sunflower seeds, or nyjer thistle seeds.

When these birds nest, the female chooses where to place the nest. Males sing vigorously and persistently to attract a female and establish their territory. The female builds the nest in a shrub such as willow, wild rose, ninebark, snowberry, blackberry, or Oregon grape, typically within 3 feet of the ground and often near the edge of the shrub. The female collects grasses, strips of bark, and leaves which she weaves together with spiderweb or silk from tent caterpillars to form a cup-shaped nest. It takes the female about 5–7 days to complete the nest. The female lays three to five eggs which she incubates for about 12 days. In some nests, after the eggs hatch, only the female brings food, in others, the male assists. The young leave the nest after about 12-13 days. After the young fledge, the male brings food to the young fledglings while the female often begins a second brood. Sometimes three broods are raised.

Did you Know? Just like we each have our own voice, each male Lazuli Bunting sings a unique combination of notes. Yearling males generally arrive on the breeding grounds without a song of their own. Shortly after arriving, they create their own song by rearranging syllables and combining song fragments of several males. The song they put together is theirs for life.

-Samantha Zeiner, FRNWR Administrative Coordinator
Photos by Susan Setterberg