A Visit from a Painted Bunting

A Visit from a Painted Bunting

We had a pleasant surprise the other evening while we were sitting in the summer room watching the birds coming to our bird feeding area. We have recently set this up and have been spending quite a while seeing the different kinds of birds that will visit during the day and in the evening.

Our main visitors are surprisingly enough a flock of Cardinals. I called them that because usually you only see a male and a female but this is obviously a family as some are so obviously babies and beginning fledglings. At first it seemed as if the adult birds were feeding the younger ones as they perched on a nearby shelf. All could fly but the younger ones not so well, still very fluttery. Gradually over the last week or so, all the young ones have been visiting the bird feeders and often we will get four or five on one feeder. They act just like children scrabbling for the seed and pushing  each other out of the way.

Another little bird that we are amazed about is a little hummingbird. We know these birds are somewhat aggressive to other hummingbirds and we see this little guy chasing another one constantly but it was quite a surprise to see it chasing off some of the nuthatches on the adjacent feeder. They obviously came too close to his feeder.

We were very surprised the other evening when a very small multicolored bird came to feed. "Why it's a  Painted Bunting!" Mike said. These little birds are brightly colored but you don't often see them. They are here in Texas during the summer months and then migrate to Mexico in the winter. They like areas where there are many bushes to hide it and we certainly have those around. We hope that this will be the start of many visits from the little bird and hopefully his family.
The photo was taken by  friend  Kathy I think , last year but it just begs to be painted. I shall have to try it.