Indigo Bunting, Passerina cyanea
The beautiful male Indigo Bunting is a rarity along the west coast, where the common Passerina bunting is this bird's western cousin,
the Lazuli Bunting. I've been lucky enough to photograph the birds above and below on two separate occasions in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
This bird is shown singing from the top of a nearby tree further down the page.
The bird above, also shown singing further down the page, was one of several Indigo Buntings I found in mid-August along the Avon River in Stratford, Ontario, where my wife and I have gone for several years. This male sang constantly throughout the morning hours I observed it on two different days. Nearby was the juvenile male seen at the bottom of this page.
Juveniles have soft fluffy brown feathering; the small amount of blue feathering
on the breast identifies this bird as a juvenile male. Adult and juvenile female
Indigo Buntings have no blue feathering at all.