Birds and Nature

I enjoy watching birds of species that I am not familiar with so returned to Quinta Mazatlan this afternoon to look for the rare Blue Bunting again. It has continued to be seen most often at their amphitheater feeders and I waited there. When I saw it last week I thought I heard it call before it came into view so I was delighted to hear it call and a few minutes later it came in the opposite side of the feeders from where I sat and only stayed a short time so I missed it. Later I was much luckier. Again I heard it call and a couple minutes later it flew onto the top of a brush pile but quickly flew down and went back into the vegetation. I did pick it up about a foot or so back in the plumaged where it sat quietly for several minutes before walking around between the brush pile and vegetation then disappearing for several more minutes. Then it flew up to the wood feeder and chowed down on bird seed (looks like it ate millet) as shown in the video clip and did so for almost 15 m...

I got to see the rare male Blue Bunting at Frontera Audubon today for my 5th and 6th times. The first time I refound it this morning it was calling, giving a very strong 'chip' call (which did not sound to be like a Blue Grosbeak chip as I have been told). I spotted it foraging about 30 feet into the native vegetation where it was foraging. Then it sang briefly, a nice warbled song. No photos then. But I found it again about 20 minutes later and 100 or so feet further away where I got this series of pics of it foraging on the ground in the leaf litter. I was less than 20 feet away as it foraged. I carefully moved away to go get a couple from Manitoba who had been looking for it and it was still foraging when we returned. The pic above shows it with what looks like a piece of leaf in it's bill. The pic above here shows it with a seed in it's bill. This indepth observation is the type of birding I enjoy the most. I got to watch this tropical bird f...