{"id":346823,"date":"2026-06-14T17:09:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/?post_type=fauna&p=346823"},"modified":"2026-06-14T17:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:17:08","slug":"painted-bunting-2","status":"publish","type":"fauna","link":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/fauna\/painted-bunting-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Painted bunting"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":346824,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[]},"collection":[],"country":[51],"fauna-group":[27732],"fauna-type":[27217],"star-rating":[276],"class_list":["post-346823","fauna","type-fauna","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","country-guatemala","fauna-group-birds","fauna-type-birds","star-rating-276"],"acf":{"scientific_name":"Passerina ciris","animal_description":"The painted bunting (*Passerina ciris*) is one of North America\u2019s most brilliantly colored songbirds, often called the \"nonpareil\" (French for \"without equal\") for its unmatched plumage. The male is a living mosaic of vivid colors: a deep blue head, bright green back, and a fiery red-orange breast and rump, while the female and juveniles are a subtle, lime-green above and pale yellow below, providing excellent camouflage. A unique characteristic is its secretive, skulking behavior\u2014despite its flashy appearance, it prefers to stay hidden in dense thickets and brushy edges, singing a sweet, warbling song from cover. Special features include a thick, conical beak perfectly adapted for cracking seeds, and its remarkable migratory journey from the southeastern United States to wintering grounds in Central America and the Caribbean, where it sometimes flocks with other buntings in coastal scrub. This species is a dazzling gem for birdwatchers, blending extreme beauty with a shy, elusive nature.","animal_habitat":"The painted bunting inhabits two distinct breeding populations separated by geography. In the eastern United States, it is found along the Atlantic coastal plain from southeastern North Carolina through South Carolina, Georgia, and into northern Florida. The larger western population breeds in the south-central U.S., primarily in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Its breeding habitat consists of dense, brushy areas, woodland edges, overgrown fields, and thickets along streams, often favoring mesquite and scrubby vegetation. During migration and winter, the species shifts to more tropical and subtropical environments, including coastal scrub, mangroves, and thorn forests. The wintering range extends from southern Florida and the Caribbean south through Mexico and Central America, reaching as far as Panama and northern South America, where it frequents weedy fields, forest edges, and second-growth habitats.","animal_behavior_and_reproduction":"During the breeding season, males establish and defend small territories, often returning to the same area each year. They are socially monogamous but frequently engage in extra-pair copulations, leading to high rates of genetic polyandry. Males court females by performing a fluttering display flight while singing, and the female alone builds a compact, cup-shaped nest in dense shrubs. She incubates the clutch of three to four eggs for about 11 days, with both parents feeding the altricial young. A unique reproductive strategy is their strong site fidelity; males often return to the exact territory from the previous year, which may reduce competition and increase breeding success in familiar habitats. Painted buntings typically raise one or two broods per season, with the female rapidly renesting if the first attempt fails.","diet":"The Painted bunting is primarily a granivore, with seeds making up the vast majority of its diet year-round. They forage on the ground or in low vegetation, consuming small seeds from grasses, weeds, and plants like amaranth, sedges, and panic grass. An interesting fact is that during the breeding season, they shift their diet significantly to include a high proportion of insects, such as caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders, to provide essential protein for their growing chicks. Another notable aspect is their feeding behavior at bird feeders, where they are particularly attracted to white millet and are known to crack seeds with their strong, conical bills, often consuming the kernel while leaving the husk behind.","colors":"The male Painted Bunting is vibrantly colored with a deep blue head, bright red underparts and rump, a greenish-yellow back, and a red eye-ring. Females and juveniles are a cryptic, uniform bright green above and pale yellowish-green below, lacking bold markings. This sexual dimorphism provides camouflage for nesting females, while the male\u2019s striking, multi-hued plumage serves as a display rather than concealment.","fun_facts":"Male painted buntings are among the most colorful birds in North America, earning nicknames like \u201cnonpareil\u201d (French for \u201cwithout equal\u201d) for their patchwork of blue, green, red, and yellow. As a quirky survival tactic, they often freeze mid-motion or hide in dense thickets when threatened, relying on their disruptive plumage to blend into dappled sunlight. They are also secretive nesters\u2014females weave cup-shaped nests so tightly that they occasionally incorporate snake skins or bits of paper, and males, despite their flashy looks, rarely help with incubation, instead singing complex, warbling songs from high perches to defend territories.","conservation_status_&_efforts":"The Painted Bunting is currently listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, with its population estimated at around 4.6 million breeding adults but showing a significant long-term decline of roughly 40-50% over the past 50 years. Primary threats include habitat loss on both its breeding and wintering grounds, particularly the conversion of native shrublands and coastal thickets to agriculture or development, as well as nest parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds and mortality from window collisions. Specific conservation measures include the implementation of prescribed fire and mechanical thinning to maintain early-successional scrub habitats in its southeastern U.S. breeding range, and partnerships with private landowners in Mexico and the Caribbean to protect its wintering grounds through the \u201cShade Grown Coffee\u201d certification program, which preserves forest canopy. Additionally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has funded research on migratory routes and stopover sites to identify critical areas for protection under the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act.","endemic":false,"migratory":true,"nocturnal":false,"conservation_status":"Least Concern","ebird_link":{"url":"https:\/\/ebird.org\/species\/paibun","title":"View on Ebird","target":"_blank"},"animal_related_page":{"url":"https:\/\/animalia.bio\/painted-bunting","title":"View on Animalia","target":"_blank"},"fauna_family":"Cardinalidae","fauna_known_nicknames":"Nonpareil, Painted Finch","fauna_average_length":"12\u201314 cm \/ 4.7\u20135.5 in","fauna_average_weight":"13\u201319 g \/ 0.46\u20130.67 oz","fauna_wingspan":"21\u201323 cm \/ 8.3\u20139.1 in","fauna_key_physical_feature":"Vivid multicolored plumage in males (blue head, red underparts, green back)","fauna_primary_diet":"Primarily Granivore (seeds) and some insects","fauna_geographical_range":"Southern United States (breeding) to Central America and the Caribbean (wintering)","fauna_preferred_habitat":"Thickets, brushy areas, woodland edges, and scrubby fields","fauna_social_structure":"Solitary to loosely social during breeding; forms flocks during migration and winter","fauna_breeding_site":"Cup-shaped nest in shrubs or low trees","fauna_conservation_status":"Near Threatened (NT)","fauna_population_trend":"Decreasing","fauna_spanish_name":"Azulejo pintado","fauna_french_name":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna\/346823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fauna"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=346823"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=346823"},{"taxonomy":"fauna-group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna-group?post=346823"},{"taxonomy":"fauna-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna-type?post=346823"},{"taxonomy":"star-rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/star-rating?post=346823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}