• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Indigo Bunting or Blue Finch?? (2 Viewers)

JDV

Well-known member
Never have seen one of these before at my feeder. Was able to snap a quick pic of it. It looks like a Blue Finch/Grosbeak, But it lacks the rusty wingbars. What do yall think?
 

Attachments

  • blue.jpg
    blue.jpg
    62.7 KB · Views: 4,681
  • b2.jpg
    b2.jpg
    78.2 KB · Views: 2,430
This is a male Indigo Bunting - a beautiful bird. It is not a Blue Grosbeak for a few reasons, one of which is, as you mention, the lack of rufous wingbars (other reasons are a brighter shade of blue on Indigos, which are smaller...). However, you seem to have some (absolutely reasonable) confusion - the Blue Grosbeak isn't a finch. There ARE finches with the name grosbeak (Pine, Evening, Hooded...), but they are family Fringillidae. The Blue Grosbeak is in Cardinalidae, along with cardinals, New World buntings (including Indigo), and other grosbeaks including Rose-breasted, Black-headed, Yellow, etc.

English names can be quite confusing at times!
 
Last edited:
Warning! This thread is more than 17 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top