Lazuli bunting

My bird of the week (bird of the day?) is the Lazuli bunting, a lovely little blue seed-eater that showed up at the feeder this morning.

According to both Sibley and the Cornel bird site, we live at or just beyond the southern edge of Lazuli bunting’s summer range, so what we’ve really got here is commuters passing through. You can see it in the time series eBird data:

Lazuli bunting sightings in Albuquerque

They show up in town in town in mid to late April, then disappear until early August. What we saw this morning, I guess, was the first wave heading south for the winter. They spend their winters down on the coast of Mexico. “Who wouldn’t?” Lissa said.