Painted Buntings:
Up-Close and Personal with Kiawah’s Best Known Residents
Photographs courtesy of Sue Corcoran
Being singled out as North America’s most beautiful bird brings plenty of pressure to be gorgeous – but the
painted bunting most certainly delivers. No one ever forgets what the male looks like. Bright blue head, lime green
back, and red underparts make it a standout in any setting. Females and juveniles sport lovely green and yellow-green
colors all over but definitely take a back seat to the scene-stealing male. Despite their brilliant coloring, painted
buntings are not that easy to spot. They tend to be shy and spend much of their time in thickets and brushy areas.
However, they are easily attracted to backyard feeders filled with white millet. Happily for Kiawah residents, this
species is fairly common in the coastal Southeast, and they nest during the months they reside here. During nesting the
male typically defends a territory of about three acres where the female will build a nest in low dense vegetation. Each
clutch contains three or four eggs. The young will hatch in 11 to 12 days and leave the nest eight to nine days later.
After the first group fledges, the female will typically lay a second brood.
Town of Kiawah Island wildlife biologist Aaron Given has been banding painted buntings on Kiawah for a
number of years and we had a chance to speak with him about his studies:
How do you capture painted buntings to study and band them? Painted buntings are captured using a wire
cage trap that is baited with a bird feeder filled with white millet. One small entrance hole is located on each side of the
trap that allows the bird to enter the trap, but they have difficulty finding their way out. During the trapping effort, the
cage trap replaces the bird feeder that the birds are used to visiting. I monitor the cage continuously and remove the bird
immediately.
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