Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena

Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena. Bird photograph taken in residential Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, March 2016. Photograph courtesy of Carol Snow, Del Mar, California.

Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena, Female. Bird photograph taken in residential Alamos, Sonora, January 2017. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena, Female. Bird photograph taken within the Reserva Monte Mojino, Alamos, Sonora, March 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, April 2011. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena, Males. Bird photograph taken within the Reserva Monte Mojino, Alamos, Sonora, March 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Background and Identification

Habitat and Geographical Range

Common Misidentifications

Conservation Status

The Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena, is a member of the Cardinalidae Family of Cardinals and Allies, which has forty-nine members placed in fourteen genera, and one of seven global species of the Passerina Genus. They are known in Mexico as zaulillo lapislázuli. They are named after the blue gemstone, Lapis lazuli.

The Lazuli Bunting is a small finch They are sexually dimorphic with the males being more brightly colored than the females. The plumages of the males and females are similar during winter months being buffy with an unstreaked rufous breast transitioning to whitish-gray on the lower belly with two buffy or white wing bars. Males have bright blue plumage when breeding during the summer months in northern latitudes. They have a conical bill and slightly notched tail. Their bills have a black upper mandible and a light-blue lower mandible; their iris is black; and, their legs and feet are dark brown or black.

The Lazuli Bunting are found within brushy habitats in second growth, along field borders and road edges, plantations, second-growth oak, near garbage dumps, and in agricultural areas at elevations up to 3,000 m (9,800 feet). They feed on seeds and fruits supplemented by arthropods. They are known for their spectacular plumage, their persistent and conspicuous singing, and their frequent visits to bird feeders and bird baths.

In Mexico Lazuli’s Bunting is found in Baja California Sur and northern Sonora during winter migrations where they stop to complete their molting before continuing to wintering grounds in coastal western Mexico from Sonora to Michoacán and in the interior from Puebla to norther Guerrero. They migrate at night in mixed species or single-species flocks.

From a conservation perspective the Lazuli Bunting is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations. In some regions their populations have been significantly adversely affected by predation by the Brown-headed Cowbird, Molothrus ater. They are caught by trapping and sold by the caged bird trade.