From Opus

Photo by P. wilkinson
Location: South Carolina, USA, May 2007

Passerina caerulea

Formerly - Guiraca caerulea

[edit] Identification

L. 6 3/4" (17 cm)
Male:

• Dark blue
• Rusty wing bars
• Large beak
• Black face

Female:

• Buffy brown
• Rusty wing-bars

Immature Similar to female, but 1st winter birds are more rufous.

[edit] Similar Species

This large Cardinaline Bunting is often mistaken for an Indigo Bunting, which does not have the rusty 'shoulders' seen as wing bars in flight, or the large beak as indicated by the name: grosbeak. Females are buffy brown with rusty colored median coverts.

Female
Photo by bobsofpa
Location: Cape May NWR, New Jersey, USA, Sept. 2008

[edit] Distribution

Southern United States north to central California, South Dakota, southern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. Casual north of regular range. Winters south to Panama.

[edit] Taxonomy

Polytypic. Consists of seven subspecies: ¹

• P. c. caerulea (Linnaeus, 1758)
• P. c. chiapensis (Nelson, 1898)
• P. c. deltarhyncha (Van Rossem, 1938)
• P. c. eurhyncha (Coues, 1874)
• P. c. interfusa (Dwight & Griscom, 1927)
• P. c. lazula (Lesson, 1842)
• P. c. salicaria (Grinnell, 1911)

[edit] Habitat

Shrubby fields, open habitat with scattered trees, scrub, thickets, cultivated lands, woodland edges, overgrown fields, hedgerows.

[edit] Behaviour

The diet includes insects, snails, spiders, seeds, grains, and fruits. Its large bill can manage large seeds, like corn, and large insects like grasshoppers.

The nest is built low in small trees and shrubs. It is a compact cup of bark, rootlets, twigs, and other fibrous material. 3-5 pale blue eggs, incubation takes 11-12 days, followed by fledging at 9-10 days. Blue Grosbeak nests are sometimes parasitized by Brown-headed Cowbirds.

[edit] References

1. ITIS

[edit] External Links