Nature clicks #223 - Indigo Bunting

 

It took me a long way from my first photo of an Indigo Bunting in 2005 (with a point and shoot camera at that time) to the one I can show you today. Blue is my favorite color, no wonder that this little finch with its brilliant, almost iridescent, blue plumage was on my personal "most wanted list". We see them usually here in May but unlike other birds they don’t tolerate our presence very well, and so I have many bird feeder shots or pictures that show the bunting in the grass and far away from my lens. I was sitting on the ground aiming for some hummingbirds in the bushes when this beautiful Indigo Bunting landed on one of the perch sticks that we installed. The woods and grassy slope in the back make for a dark background but they are far enough to give a decent bokeh that lets the bird stand out from its surroundings. I hope you enjoy.

Nature clicks #165 - Indigo Bunting

 

This is an image I was hoping for since a long time. We see the Indigo Bunting mostly in late spring and early summer here. I have never been able to make a picture of it away from a bird feeder until this morning. Indigo Buntings are actually black. The diffraction of light through their feathers makes them looking blue. This explains why the males can have many different color shades from turquoise to black. The Indigo Bunting is a migratory bird and spends the winter in Florida and in the tropics. They use the pattern of stars for guidance and migrate at night (source: iBird Pro app). This evening three of them were feeding in the grass here but the light was not sufficient anymore to make a sharp image.