Painted bunting
Passerina ciris
— Where the name comes from
Ciris comes from the same myth of Nisus that names the sparrowhawk: Scylla, the daughter who betrayed her father, was turned into a bird called ciris, pursued forever by the bird of prey. Passerina is Latin, “little sparrow”. The Italian name, “pope of Louisiana”, probably comes from Louisiana French, where the bird was called pape, “pope”, for its gaudy robes.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Passerines
- Habitat
- Thickets, hedges, woodland edges, coastal scrub
- Range
- The southern United States and Mexico; winters in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America
- Size
- 12–14 cm, 13–19 g
- Diet
- Seeds, insects in the breeding season
- Lifespan
- A few years
— Characteristics
- 01
The adult male has a blue head, a green back and a red breast.
- 02
The female and first-year male are a uniform green.
- 03
The male defends his territory with duels that can turn violent.
— What sets it apart
The male looks as if a child had painted him with every colour in the box, and he takes two years to put them on. In his first year he wears the same discreet green as the female, and goes unnoticed by other males, which do not attack him: only from his second summer does he light up in blue, green and red. Those very colours have made him a victim: in Mexico and Cuba he was trapped for generations as a cagebird, and the most beautiful males ended up in markets before they could breed.
