Lazuli’s eastern cousin: The closely related indigo bunting, almost entirely a deep blue color, is a common bird in the eastern United States, but only very rarely wanders west to south-central ...

Lazuli buntings migrate through Texas from winter homes in Mexico during the spring, from April through May, and normally follow a route from the Trans-Pecos to the Panhandle.

One of the curious things in the world of birds is why most species come in only one color form, while others come in many.

The “lazuli” part of lazuli bunting’s name refers to the adult male’s striking blue coloring. His plumage is so vivid that even bluebirds are jealous.

The blue is easy to see, but it’s important to understand how "great" this bird is. With a height of 3.2 to 4.5 feet and a wingspan of 5.5 to 6.6 feet, it sure is great.

The Audubon Society says lazuli bunting males are sky blue and usually have a rusty chest, white belly and white wing bars. Females are brown and usually show a cinnamon wash on an unstreaked chest.

The Troyer bird is a first-year male, and, for whatever reason, took a wrong turn. Midwestern U.S. records are very few, and lazuli bunting wasn’t high on the list of next species to appear in Ohio.

Populations of Lazuli Buntings (Passerina amoena) and Indigo Buntings (P. cyanea) overlap in their distribution and hybridize in the Great Plains of North America. We conducted a 4-year field study of ...