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Passerina
ciris |
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| Description
Author: Derek Palmer
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The Painted Bunting
is one of the most brilliantly colored birds of North America. It looks as though it flew
through a rainbow and the colors stuck to its plumage. In adult male specimens, the head and nape are bluish purple, the back is bronze-green, the rump and underparts are red, contrasting with dark wings and tail, and it has a red eye-ring. On the adult female, the upperparts are dark greenish and the underparts yellow green (Lowther, 1999). The Painted Bunting is a sparrow-sized bird with its overall length about 5 1/2 inches. The bill is small. The wings are long and pointed. The tail is about 3/4 as long as the wing, slightly double rounded. Other names include Painted Finch, Pope, Nonpareil (French for "without equal"), and Mexican Canary (Pearson, 1936). |