Violet Bunting
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Violet
Bunting, Passerina
violacea L 13-15 cm, WS 20-22 cm, Family: Cardinalidae
IUCN Conservation
Status: Least concern
(LC)
Description:
Small,
stocky songbird with medium-length notched tail and conical bill. Appears
finch-like. Breeding males unmistakable, brilliantly colored with vibrant purple
head and breast fading to a blue back, blue and black wings, and white belly. Females
dull, mostly brown with lighter undersides, faint hints of blue in the wings
and tail. Juvenile and nonbreeding males will be mottled purple, blue, and
brown.
Voice:
Song
is a melodious series of both clear, sweet notes and raspy buzzes that rises
and falls in pitch, lasting 2-3 seconds, often repeated. Pattern and order of
notes is variable, and males will frequently change their song. The most common
call is a short, metallic tic.
Range and Habitat:
Breeding
range encompasses the entirety of Novasola. Winters in Mexico and Central
America. Arrives in Novasola in late spring and begins fall migration in late
summer. They breed in open woodlands and brushy areas like dry pine and juniper
stands, oak savannah, chaparral and scrubland, forest meadows, and wooded
riparian areas. Will also use man-made habitats like yards and wooded parks,
and will visit feeders.
Discussion:
A
dazzling flash of shining purples and blues, the garish Violet Bunting male decorates
the dry, scrubby hillsides, meadows, and savannah of Novasola. Widespread and
common, Violet Buntings are a well-known and popular endemic bird, both for
their impressive colors and beautiful songs.
Violet
Buntings are found in brushy areas and open woodland across the island. Though
their populations have been steadily decreasing over the past century, these
declines are less severe than many other endemic birds because buntings have
been able to utilize farmland and areas of agricultural and suburban
development as habitat, especially hedgerows, gardens, and parks. They are also
common in post-wildfire burned areas, especially once a dense understory has
regrown, so they may partially benefit from the increasing amount and severity
of wildfires.
Violet
Buntings eat a variety of invertebrates, including grasshoppers, caterpillars,
spiders, beetles, and ants, as well as vegetative matter like berries and seeds,
especially grass seeds. They will commonly visit bird feeders where available,
especially if sunflower seeds or millet are offered.
Buntings
spend most of their time in the understory, hopping between shrubs, small
trees, brambles, and the ground. However, during the breeding season when the
buntings are on Novasola, male Violet Buntings are quite conspicuous, not only
for their vivid plumage but also their habit of singing atop exposed perches. Males
sing to advertise their presence to potential mates and territorial rivals. Buntings
form socially monogamous pairs, though extra-pair copulations, or breeding with
other birds outside the pair, are common. Females build nests within the male’s
territory, usually about a meter off the ground in a dense shrub. Females also
do all the incubation, while the male brings her food and defends the territory
from intruders. Both parents feed and raise chicks. After the breeding season, buntings
form flocks and migrate to southern California and Arizona where they stop to
molt their feathers. Once the molt is complete, after about a month or two,
they continue southward into Mexico and Central America. Sometimes called
Twilight Buntings, because of their color, they fittingly migrate almost exclusively
at night.
When
Violet Buntings migrate over the mainland they often flock with Lazuli
Buntings. They are closely related to Lazuli Buntings and will occasionally
interbreed with them, however modern genetic analyses have revealed that Violet
Buntings are actually more closely related to Indigo Buntings of eastern North
America, and the two are sister species. Violet Buntings are one of three Novasolan
endemic species within the family Cardinalidae, which also includes the Novasola
Tanager and Spotted Grosbeak. The species was described for science in 1834 by
Thomas Nuttall. The Kuliquit word for the bird is kanat'á shooý', which translates roughly to
“blueberry bird”.
Though
Violet Buntings were first described in 1834, their breeding grounds had not
been observed, and it wasn’t until the 1880s that it was determined the
buntings breed on Novasola. Despite being a fairly common bird, little was
known, and even less written, about the species by the time of the 1902 Novasola
Research Corps expedition.
“I
had today the privilege of encountering a most breathtakingly beautiful bird,
the Violet Finch as described by Mr. Nuttall. As I walked along the edge of the
woodland just upslope from camp, a flash of vibrant blue caught my eye. My
heart quickened with anticipation as I approached the source of this ethereal
hue. There, perched upon a bare branch of a mostly defoliated scrub oak, was a
male Violet Bunting resplendent in its iridescent coat. Its azure and violet plumage,
gleaming in the morning sunlight, was an awesome sight to behold. The bird
seemed to radiate an inner glow, as if a winter’s evening sky had been
distilled and painted onto its delicate feathers. The sunlight danced upon its
plumage, casting an enchanting sheen that no doubt captivates the females of
its species just as it does me.
…
I
observed the bird for near twenty minutes before it fled to the cover of the
underbrush. It sang a garbled collection of whistles and scratches persistently
for much of that time. There was no discernable pattern to the song, but as
soon as my ears were familiarized with its notes I heard two other males counter-singing
in the distance from the east and west.” – Expedition log, May 31, 1902
“The
male Violet Bunting possesses a small, compact body, approximately five to six
inches in length. Its beak was stout and strong, though small. Its wings are
dark and adorned with indigo lining. The female, though less conspicuous in
appearance, possesses a subtle beauty of her own, with muted brown plumage and
blue-gray wing linings.
…
These
birds are numerous in many regions of the Fastwaters, and I have observed great
quantities of them in the alpine and montane meadows in each of the territory’s
three mountain ranges. Equally abundant are they in the river valleys of the
Castor and Pollux and in the surrounding orchards and vineyards. They migrate to
spend the cold months off island and are thus most plentiful in the late summer
along the island’s northeast coast. Here they flock in significant numbers and depart
en masse by the light of the stars, but not before foraging among the open woods
and meadows for some days or weeks.” – Manual to Novasolan Birds, 1914
“To
witness such a magnificent creature in its natural habitat is a privilege
beyond words. Encounters with the Bunting remind me of the boundless wonders
that nature has granted us, even in the most unassuming corners of the world as
the hedgerow delineating my schoolhouse garden. Any whose eyes befall upon it
may also see that the Bunting is a small but significant tessera in the grand
mosaic of creation.” – Native Birds of Novasola, 1912