Bird of the Week for March 8: Painted Bunting

Exciting times at Panther Island where we have recently been seeing painted buntings! In the photo here is the brilliantly colored male. The female is a yellow-green underneath with bright green upperparts. Painted buntings prefer open brushlands, thickets, and scattered woodlands in the wild and will also use hedges and bushes in yards. While they are frequent visitors to birdfeeders, they feed on insects, insect larvae like caterpillars, and spiders during their breeding season. But in the fall and winter they eat seeds.  They form monogamous pairs and spend lots of time together. Their nests are built of plant fibers formed into a deep, neatly woven cup. They then line the nest with hair or fine grasses. Typically nests are seen in low in vegetation such as trees, moss or vines. The nest is incubated by the female for 11-12 days before the young are born. The young are fed for 12-14 days by both parents with mom doing a little more of the work. They often have 2-3 broods in a year. 
Because of their coloring and pretty song, they are popular cage birds. Laws now protect these birds in the United States. However their numbers are declining rapidly in the eastern US. The decline is probably due to habitat loss as well as a nest parasite (the brown-headed cowbird).