Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2003 04:31:06 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Frank Boyle Subject: Re: Painted Bunting on Assateague-More Details In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Even in it's strongholds in northern Florida & southern Georgia, the Painted Bunting is a notorious skulker. The only place I have had no trouble at all locating them was in Belize, in January. There in January & February the males I observed were so busy chasing females that they flew out in the open, perching within feet of me. My only guess is that some males in Central America were already breeding. Or at least setting up territories. They are listed as "transient" in the winter over much of Belize, Yucatan and Mexico. Oh, and then there was that one in Northeast, MD, (in 1998?) kept alive by a kind woman with heaters & feeders in the dead of winter - remember that? That male was already through molt, and his colors were glorious!!! It made me forget that it was 4 degrees F the day I saw him. ************************** Frank Boyle Laurel, MD ravenfrank@earthlink.net ************************** -----Original Message----- From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM] On Behalf Of Mark Hoffman Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 10:14 PM To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Painted Bunting on Assateague-More Details To follow-up on Matt's post: About 9:45 am I was birding along the beginning of the "Life of the Marsh Trail" in the Assateague Island National Seashore/Bayside Campground area. The trail is along a wooden boardwalk and makes a loop from a large parking lot, starting at its eastern end, then passing a large map of the loop and then heading to the south. About 45 paces after the "1" interpretive sign, there is a small marsh finger to the west of the boardwalk, and immediately adjacent to this a close wooded fringe, that ends with marsh/phragmites to the south. I've had Philadelphia Vireo and other migrants here before, and tried my "migrant tape" (mixed spishing, chickadee and screech-owl). A few catbirds called and I soon noticed a bird in a bayberry clump just south of the southern edge of the wood line (a large, for Assateague standards, cherry tree). The small passerine was facing me about 30-40 feet away, with a thick conical bill, a blue head, and a bright red throat, breast and sides. I certainly was not thinking "PAINTED BUNTING", so hybrid between a cardinal and indigo bunting might have flashed through my subconscious?!? The bird disappeared after maybe 6 seconds, and while trying to find it again, a light bulb finally went off . Fortunately, the bird shortly flew up and perched about 15 feet up in a bare limb in the open, in the clump of vegetation around the cherry tree. I quickly turned my attention to its back, and it was indeed a bright metallic lime-green color. The red on the breast had a mottled appearance in places (as I had noted when I first saw the bird), either it was in molt or had perhaps just taken a bath. There were several small areas of white visible (the bases of the red breast feathers), and a couple small patches that seemed a little more bright orange than red. In the second view, I noted the wings as dark, and the red on the underparts included the flanks. I did not see the undertail coverts or rump. The tail was short and dark. I did not get any real color for the bill (it was in the shade when first seen), nor did I notice an eye ring on the bluish head. I did not specifically look for this. The head was a shade lighter than say the blue on the head of a Blue Grosbeak, and not the somewhat metallic blue as on an Indigo Bunting. It was uniformly blue, without a darker area between the dark eye and the bill. The back, however, did show the metallic quality of the Indigo's plumage, but in lime-green instead of blue. During the second viewing, the bird was only visible another 6-8 seconds, and disappeared into the clump around the cherry tree. I got my camera out, and saw the bird in flight once, headed to the west within the clump. The flight view was just of a small passerine with reddish underparts. At that point I called Matt, and continued to work the area for the next hour. The entire area to the south of the Life of the Marsh Trail parking lot is potential habitat, as it is a very thick tangle. That is where I focused my efforts, following deer trails and finding small openings from which to scan and spish. I did not see it again. If the bird does not want to cooperate, it would be impossible to find. I then worked the area again after doing the camping loops after a couple hours, but to no avail. (The Bayside migrant flight was ok, with about 50 warblers on the strong NW winds.) This is the second Painted Bunting I have found in Worcester County (Jimbo - take note) and the third I have seen there. There are three prior county records: 08/31/1963 (banded, North OC banding station, MB 19:108), winter 1991-1992 (Stockton) and winters 1993 to 1995 (Berlin). The banding record (of a immature) was the first MD record and analogous to the present record from a pattern perspective. A quick review of Northeast publications show a handful of similar records (e.g., 30 Aug 1967, Monomy, MA; 8 Sep 1961, Island Beach, NJ). My prior experience with the Worcester birds illustrates how elusive this species can be. I found the Stockton bird in late-December and saw it again the next April. During the intervening time period I probably looked for the bird 30 times. Even the Berlin feeder bird was comparable. I saw this bird three times over its stay, and looked for it probably 25 or so times. I can not offer a lot of hope to anyone trying to refind this bird, but birders don't need much hope to persevere, do they? Given the apparent molt of the bird's breast, it is interesting to speculate that it was from the western populations. Although he does not recognize any subspecies, Pyle et al. (Identification Guide to North American Birds) states that the prebasic molt of western birds "occur[s] primarily on migration and the winter grounds, whereas those of eastern birds occur on the summer grounds." Mark L. Hoffman Sykesville, MD Mhoff36100@aol.com In a message dated 9/5/03 10:18:54 AM Eastern Daylight Time, MH1920@AOL.COM writes: > Mark Hoffman just called me from the Life of the Marsh trail where he > has > found an adult male Painted Bunting. He said it was about 100 feet down the > east boardwalk entrance. It spent time in the bayberry and the nearby cherry > tree. He also said the bird was very worn and seemingly in molt, so > it may > stay for a few days. > > Good luck, > > Matt Hafner > College Park, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================