I wrote a few days ago about that we haven’t seen the same numbers of certain birds, especially warblers, as last year. This is also true for the Indigo Bunting, a regular summer resident here in Iowa. They usually visit our bird feeders sometimes during the summer but this year I have seen the species only once so far in the front yard.
This photo was made last weekend in the Green Island Wetlands and before I was able to locate the bird I heard its singing efforts , which sounds really beautiful.
Blue is my favorite color but Indigo Buntings are actually black. It is the diffraction of light through their feathers that make them look blue and this explains why males can appear in many different shades from turquoise to black (source: iBird Pro app).