Indigo Bunting

migration · birds · cardinal family

Navigates by stars. Indigo buntings migrate at night using the stars to find their way. They travel thousands of miles between breeding grounds in North America and winter homes in South America.

Dazzling blue color. Male indigo buntings are striking shades of blue, while females are brown. The intense blue comes from the way their feathers reflect light, not from pigment alone.

Seed-eating specialists. These small birds belong to the cardinal family and love eating seeds. You'll find them in farmland, brush areas, and open woodlands where seeds are plentiful.

Can interbreed with cousins. Where indigo buntings meet their close cousins, lazuli buntings, the two species sometimes have babies together. This happens in areas where their ranges overlap in the western United States.

Massive range shift. In summer, indigo buntings live from southern Canada all the way to northern Florida. When winter comes, they fly south to Florida, Central America, and northern South America.