Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), Quailway Cottage, Portal, Cochise County

This Painted Bunting was discovered and photographed by John Yerger on 12 May 2011.

Painted Bunting is a rare but regular visitant to southeast Arizona during late summer and early fall and is casual at other times.  A male Painted Bunting was reported from Willcox Twin Lakes on 14 May 2011, only a few days after this bird was photographed in Portal.  While the pattern of migrants in Arizona suggests that fall migrants are wild birds, Painted Bunting is a common cage bird in Mexico and it is impossible to know if birds are escapes or not, especially when seen outside of the normal fall migration.

Considering just the bunting species likely to occur in Arizona, greenish plumage throughout the body is a characteristic unique to Painted Bunting.

12 May 2011, photo by John Yerger