David Sibley - Painted Bunting (5/8)

Painted Bunting

Range/Habitat: The Painted Bunting breeding range is divided into western and eastern populations. The western population ranges from Kansas south to Louisiana and Texas, and winters primarily in Mexico and as far south as Panama. The eastern population is limited to the coastal regions of North Carolina south to northern Florida. It winters in southern Florida, including the Florida Keys, and is occasionally seen to winter in the Bahamas and Cuba.

Threats: This species has declined by 50 percent in less than 20 years, according to breeding bird survey data compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey. Primary threats are loss and degradation of breeding habitat due to development of swampy thickets and woodland edges, nest parasitism by Brown-headed and Bronzed Cowbirds, and capture by the hundreds every year as cage birds on tropical wintering grounds.

What TNC is Doing: Wings of the Americas? Gulf Wings initiative seeks to identify and protect the most important and often overlooked stopover habitats for the more than 260 migratory species, including the Painted Bunting, that make the annual migration journey across or around the Gulf of Mexico.

Illustrations by David Allen Sibley from The National Audubon Society: The Sibley Guide to Birds published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. Copyright © 2000 by Chanticleer Press and David Allen Sibley. No illustrations may be copied, reproduced, or reused without the express written permission of the copyright holders.