Berkeley Backyard Bird Blog: Lazuli Bunting Sightings . . . Here & There (& Not Quite Everywhere)

Lazuli Bunting perched atop tree snag looking for mate

Finally! A Lazuli Bunting!

Water District (EBMUD) land rich in bird and wildlife

A rare appearance in my birding experience,

I'll have you know.

Lazuli Bunting mate with insect in beak

I've actually met people

who have shrugged them off

like they're common ol' birds to spot.

Horses grazing on watershed lands

Not so!

Steller's Jay on the move

First off, how can you not get excited

about seeing the exotic-looking cousin

of the even more exotic-looking Painted Bunting?

Painted Bunting (photo courtesy of Doug Janson)
CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
via Wikimedia Commons

And yet, the bird is considered common.

Mama Turkey and her poults in tow

Perhaps even drab by the unenthused and jaded.

Yellow-rumped Warbler of the "Audubon" variety (perhaps)

Many birder sites, including All About Birds, says the elusive (my experience) Bunting is "common in shrubby areas throughout the American West." Audubon concurs in their conservation status report: "widespread and common."

View of San Pablo Reservoir from El Toyonal Road

Common? C'mon! Such a designation belies the colossal wonder and irrepressible awe I experience whenever I see such a bird (a la the Golden-crowned Kinglet; in the vein of a Hermit Warbler).

Finch emblazoned in color

Makes me shake my head and wonder,

where art thou my sweet little Bunting?

Beautiful Lazuli Bunting sheltering in the brush

Well, the other day I got lucky and happened to score a good look at the intensely pretty bird. A very fine specimen indeed was spotted hanging out in a small meadow near the horse stables on El Toyonal Road, an area seen in the photo I have not once ever set foot on.

Red-tailed Hawk motionless on thermals

It's water district land, generally off-limits, but an easement allows equestrians right of passage. This is excellent bird habitat and foraging territory, plus downright beautiful and devoid of people.

Bewick's Wren is a abundant - but never common!

I was bound to see a bunting.

Wasn't I?

Golden-crowned Sparrow family pecking around

Excellent timing, too, as all special first ever or rare / occasional sightings require. I delayed our bike ride for twenty minutes (thanks Gambolin' Gal!) while fixated, watching the animated bird fly back and forth from high tree branches then disappear in thick ground cover, before fluttering out into the bright open sunlight to reveal a most "beautifully colored bird."

Lazuli Bunting posing nicely

Oddly, on first espying the bird, I suspected but was uncertain it was even a Lazuli Bunting, the last bird I expected to see. I was confounded just enough to be convinced it had to be a very glittery Western Bluebird with pronounced morph features or something.

Western Bluebird

I was about fifty yards distant, so not the best views were afforded, as you can tell by the blurry blow-up photos. And yet, the more I looked, the more excited I became, because this bird was evidently, plainly, a Lazuli Bunting!

No mistaking a Lazuli Bunting for anyone else

Note the brilliant turquoise patinaed head and clean-cut rufous breast plate - two indicators that should have been an immediate tip-off. The characteristic white wing bars, which are totally absent on the Western Bluebird, also should have clued me in right away.

Wildflowers in meadow looking toward Seaview Trail in Tilden Park

So, why was I so stumped and mystified? I think it must have to do with the rarity of actually sighting a Lazuli Bunting, despite what you read or what people tell you. Or me.

No mistaking a Western Bluebird for anyone else

Checking the eBird Occurrence Map just to see, a massive, amazing influx fans out in a color-coordinated animated map of their migratory patterns from southern Arizona and Baja during winter to dense movement north in spring and summer.

Call of the Robin

The Occurrence Map must denote tens of millions of them! And I have seen but a handful over many years of birding in the Bay Area.

Lazuli Bunting singing in the trees

The Lazuli Bunting is now singing in the high tree top, perched on a leafy branch tweeting his sweet unique melody to the world, to whoever will hear him: a rival male, a breeding female, a curious Crow, maybe a spellbound lucky human being . . .