Meet the Lazuli Bunting bird. Isn’t he pretty?
I had to be in my archive yesterday. I came upon these photographs I have never shared before. Actually, it looks as if I did not look through this whole file….. ? These days I put notes for myself in my photography albums of what day, so I know what I did when. Otherwise the photographs get lost in the shuffle. This series of the Lazuli Bunting Birds I am showing today is the two feeding here at the house. This is when I had yet to designate this area as the bird area here at home. This is almost four years ago…. I have been doing this for a little while now, those who have read my blog know how much I like taking photographs and talking about the subjects of the photographs!
Like most of the birds who show up here these Lazuli Bunting birds are no different! They are a little mistrusting at first, then they find out I have my space, they have theirs. All I ask for is some photographs! In turn they get the seed that is placed in the feeder, they get nesting material if it applies. They get water which is a biggy here in the High Desert of Oregon and I wont let anything happen to them while in my space. After some times these Lazuli Bunting birds noticed this, they were safe here.
I do believe I have photographs of the female in another photo album, however at the time I did not know what I had? I have to go back and find that photo album of that day…. My archive is organized by the year, month and the day. Then as I go through the photographs I name the photograph , if that is I can? This way all I have to do is go to the drive my external hard drive is plugged into, go to the search option type in whatever, hit search! If anyone has a better way….. I am all ears haha! By naming the file before it is uploaded, the search engines grab the name of the photograph file. This just helps with the search engine optimization. I have done this for years, again if you have or think you have a better way……
Being a agricultural area, the seed we buy typically comes from the feed store at the livestock auction. At one time there was a well known feed store there in Madras we bought from, however with the economy the way it is… this is now a tire store (It looks like a tire store, could be a mechanic shop). There is also a feed store now in Culver Oregon. Though we just find getting into the livestock auction easier and it is closest to us. Which ever case the seed to our understanding is from our area. Now a days we buy bulk seed. 40-50 lbs bags. We also provide suet here for the wild birds. This I have yet to find a bulk supplier hint hint, if you know where I can buy this in bulk……
What I felt was a little strange for these Lazuli Bunting being here is, we are not a wooded area like I read they are found. We are the High Desert. For this reason I think these Lazuli Buntings were here at the house just resting until they went on their way. We get many creatures just stopping in. Migrating birds the most! Whatever species might be here for a day or two, or could be here for only hours before they pack up and move on! I think this is the case with these Lazuli Bunting birds?
As you can see from this series of photographs, the Lazuli Bunting birds are filling up on seeds. They were in the fruit trees as well, so perhaps they were also feeding on insects? I watched these Lazuli Buntings while they were here. Their behavior and how they interacted with the birds who are here normally at this time of the year, (May). There was some fighting going on with the other birds trying to run off the Lazuli Buntings, however the Lazuli Buntings were not easily ran off! I have photographed the Western Bluebird which one website claims is similar to the Lazuli Bunting, no there is no confusing the two birds one bit!! However, if the two do share the same space, this is even more confusing to me as to why the Lazuli Bunting were here at the house….. There are three spots that we know of that the Western Bluebirds always are and it is not here at home! Again why I feel these Lazuli Bunting birds were here during migration? The Lazuli Bunting I have read is pretty common bird, so I hope to see it again! Thank you for coming by and checking out my little write up and hope your weekend went well if you celebrated the holiday or not!