Happy 2012!  I hope the New Year brings many joyful sightings and plenty of Painted Bunting antics to keep you entertained!  My apologies for leaving you without much news for the last couple of months – turns out my “elbow injury” was actually a fractured radius, resulting in 9 torturous weeks of not using my dominant arm! Read more »

PBOT had another amazing year of over 17,500 reported sightings, nearly 260 new volunteers, and several hundred more banded Painted Buntings out there waiting to be spotted!  We have also been blessed with over $600 in donations made to Friends of PBOT – we are very grateful to those of you who have made contributions large and small to our program! Read more »

I have been hearing this wistful observation from many of our Florida friends over the last couple of weeks, and I can sympathize!  These birds are usually as reliable as they come – if you typically see them by the 15th of November, you expect them to arrive at that time every year!  However, with the continued warm weather in the breeding range (temperatures are forecast to be in the high 60s and low 70s in the coastal Carolinas for at least the next 10 days) and plenty of wild food resources in Florida, you may not see your regular group of Painted Buntings for weeks to come!&n Read more »

We wish all our PBOT friends a very happy holiday season!  I apologize for the extended silence from PBOT Headquarters – I took a minor fall several weeks ago that injured my right elbow (my dominant arm!) and has prevented me from doing much typing.  Despite this, I continue to read all your emails and answer any emergency requests, upload our friends’ photos to Flickr, and approve sightings as often as possible.  I am thrilled to hear from our good friends in Florida as their birds arrive and get comfortable in their winter territory – and we’ve had new friends sign up to h Read more »

I was away from PBOT Headquarters during the month of September (typically a quiet month for PBOT), but I was checking in occasionally to approve sightings, publish comments, and post the last of our summer interns’ blogs.  We had another great group of UNC-Wilmington students working with us this summer, submitting observations from many of the public sites (state parks, recreation areas and aquaria) along the coast of North Carolina, and writing short blog posts that many of you enjoyed and commented on.  You can still see their blogs on our Read more »

Yes, you read that right!  We have heard from friends all over the state – from Amelia Island in the northeast all the way south to Miami – all spotting males, and a few greenies, arriving as early as the first week of August!  Because the males are often the first to leave on migration (to defend their breeding territory in the spring and summer, and because they are off fledgling-care duty in the early fall), you are likely to spot them arriving at the feeder first – sometimes weeks before the green females and young birds appear.  I recently experienced this during a week- Read more »

What a busy summer for PBOT!  There have been so many exciting (and mundane) things going on, I've been too busy to blog about them!  For the first time in my years of coordinating this program, we have received several reports of nesting Painted Buntings in northern Florida – something that is recorded in the literature, but seemed to have become relatively rare in recent years.  This is great news to me and many of our Florida friends!  The Raleigh News & Observer (NC) published a great Read more »

For the most part, our Painted Buntings have made their way back to the Carolinas from their winter homes in Florida, Cuba and Mexico – sightings reports are now scarce from our friends in Florida.  In fact, even reports from the Carolinas have become more infrequent, as our buntings settle in and begin nesting in the breeding range.  While the female is on the nest (incubating and brooding), both parents eat insects and are rarely seen visiting the feeder.  The female builds the nest by herself and is the more attentive parent during nesting, but the male may make occasional Read more »

Okay, I'll admit it, none of our Carolina friends have actually quoted that song in an email to me, but they easily could have!  We're hearing of more and more returning males (and some greenies) to South Carolina, and more recently to coastal North Carolina – in fact, one male has even shown up inland (near Greenville, NC), surprising the homeowner with his first-ever sighting.  Of course, this winter has been a little unusual all around, with Painted Buntings overwintering in several places along coastal North Carolina – a relative rarity, especially considering our cold winter Read more »

Have you noticed sudden changes in the numbers of Painted Buntings on your feeders in Florida lately?  Are you seeing Painted Buntings in northern Florida, or along the Panhandle?  These are signs that spring migration is underway!  You may be able to spot these colorful birds on your feeders in north-central Florida, along the Florida Panhandle, in Georgia, and even in the Carolinas throughout April as they travel from their winter homes (in southern Florida, Cuba, and Mexico) to their breeding range (in Georgia, South Carolina, and coastal North Carolina).  We really a Read more »