A little over a year ago I posted that I had begun seeing indigo buntings at our feeders in addition to the lazuli buntings that had been coming to see us for years.
At the time I mentioned that I was seeing an individual that might be a hybrid and had seen this interbreeding referenced in field guides and elsewhere. I saw this fellow on the feeder earlier today and he certainly has more white on him than I have seen in other indigo buntings. The bird I remember from last year was completely white on the belly and flanks, but didn’t have any traces of white on the wings like this one does.
Maybe I’m overreaching here. Please opine.
UPDATE: Added this picture taken from a different angle.
UPDATE II: Per Steve and Lane’s comments, here’s a picture of a blue grosbeak taken on the same feeder a couple of years ago.
Although it lacks the "chestnut wing bars", it also looks a lot like a Blue Grosbeak. Maybe a young male? I see them occaisionally where I live, and am always confusing them with the much more common Indigo Buntings……..L.B.
I kept thinking the bill is rather large; is the bird "big" too? But young males don't usually look so blue.
I just added the grosbeak picture for comparison. I don't know if the bill on my hybrid candidate is as big.
Usually the buff bars are prominent in the grosbeak but I thought from the beginning the beak was large on your bunting. I wish I could see SIZE.
Both birds are on the same feeder (pix 1,2, and 4) can you scale from that?
Grosbeak does look bigger. I wonder if any possibility exists for hybridization between the genera—?
I have been watching this bird at the feeder over the last couple of days (he's been sticking pretty close) and he still strikes me as slightly smaller and more gracile than the grosbeak. Actually saw him and a black-headed grosbeak together on the same feeder this morning.