FAQ

The Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) is a neotropical migratory song bird that breeds in two distinct populations, one in the southeastern United States, the other in the Midwest. Males are unmistakable with blue, red, green, and yellow. Females and immature males are almost entirely green. Juveniles that have recently fledged the nest are overall drab to olive brown with buffy under parts. Females and young males both are Green and we refer to them both as “Green birds”.

Adult Male

Photo by Alison B.

Adult Female

Photo by John Ennis

Juvenile (Sex Unknown)

Photo by Jamie Rotenberg

Yes and No! Yes, female Painted Buntings are mostly green and not multicolored as the adult males are. However, males do not acquire this multicolored plumage until the end of their second year. Here’s the cycle, fledglings leaving the nest will be an olive drab to brown color. They then molt quickly and change to a “green bird”, like a female. During this time it is impossible to distinguish visually a female Painted Bunting from a young male unless you capture one and look for sex characteristics other than feather color differences. In other words, a green bird at a feeder might be either a female or a young male!! That is why we refer to our green Painted Buntings as “Green birds”.

To complete the cycle, the young males who were born last year, migrated south as a Green birds. They will return to their U.S. breeding grounds still as a Green birds, and they will start to molt into their adult plumage near the end of the breeding season (late August/September).

Please see the photos of Adult male, female (Green bird that we have handled and know to be female), and juvenile under “What’s a Painted Bunting?”

Painted Buntings are found in the United States in the spring and summer, and fly south to spend their winters in Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. They breed in two separate areas, one in the southeast within the Atlantic Coastal Plain including, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and another population in the southern and central midwest from Kansas and Missouri south to Texas and Louisiana. Florida is the only state that consistently has a breeding population in the spring and summer (North Florida) and a wintering population (South Florida).

Breeding Range Map (Click map for PDF article on Breeding Range)

Map from Sykes and Holzman, North American Birds, 59:4-17, 2005. Current range of the eastern population of Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) Part 1: Breeding

Unfortunately, Painted Bunting populations are declining. The eastern population of Painted Buntings breeds in a restricted range within the Atlantic Coastal Plain, from North and South Carolina to Georgia and Florida. Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) Data collected since 1966 show a 3.2% decline per year for Painted Buntings in the southeast region. The Painted Bunting's decline may be due to a variety of factors, principally increased coastal development and new agricultural practices, both of which tend to clear shrub-scrub brush that is vital to breeding Painted Buntings that use early-successional habitats.

Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) Data from 1966-1995 showing decline in the number of Painted Buntings counted per survey route. BBS datasets are available at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBS/

Our main goal for the citizen science effort focuses on developing strategies for sustaining eastern Painted Bunting populations, with volunteers playing a major role in monitoring and collecting data in the field to meet that goal – and to help with Painted Bunting species conservation.

For more information on the conservation status of Painted Buntings, see “Are Painted Buntings endangered?”. For more information on how we use PBOT volunteer-collected data, please see “How will my data be used?”.

Since Painted Buntings readily visit backyard bird feeders, citizen scientists can easily participate in a variety of data generating components that aid us in comparing Painted Bunting populations breeding in suburban, rural and natural habitats, from the coast to more inland areas. Along with backyard banding, these data can include quantifying demographic parameters such as population distribution, density and abundance; productivity and adult survival; and, behavioral patterns of site-fidelity and habitat use.

The citizen science approach, where volunteer observers aid scientists in data collection, has become a useful means of investigating large-scale questions related to a variety of avian research. A focused citizen science approach will include better coverage of targeted habitats on a landscape scale than ones that do not, and many times these programs represent the only method available to relate large-scale changes to biodiversity in urban and rural areas.

Our objectives are to:

• Recruit and maintain an active group of citizen volunteers who would make observations and collect data at backyard bird feeders in suburban/rural areas and in designated private and/or protected areas.
• Coordinate capture, mark-recapture and re-sight monitoring of color-banded buntings by agency participants, citizen volunteers, and university student-interns at a subset of these private and public protected areas.

With these objectives, we hope to determine the abundance and distribution of Painted Buntings at backyard feeders and to attempt to detect population patterns across the coastal-inland and suburban-rural landscapes. We hope to find out if there are differences in how males and females use feeders, and to determine how important backyard feeders are as a food resource for Painted Buntings. Ultimately, we want to find out why the species is in decline and do something about it. We also hope to improve/enhance citizen awareness for the conservation of Painted Buntings. It’s working with folks like you who can help make the difference.

We are focusing on two main types of data for our citizen scientist volunteers to collect:

• Spot Sightings: Use this option when you want to quickly submit a Painted Bunting sighting where, for example, you looked out your window and saw one or more Painted Buntings at your feeder. If the one or more birds had colored bands on their legs, please tell us by indicating the colors in the drop-down menus. If the Painted Buntings where unbanded, you don’t need to add any band data. Just tell us the most number of adult males and green birds you see at your feeder together, and click submit. The date and time are already set for that moment you are seeing the bird(s). It’s as easy as that! You can even review your sightings anytime during the season to keep track of your data, or just let us do it for you!
• Timed Sightings: Use this option to submit sightings where you sat and watched your Painted Buntings for a certain time period lasting at least 15 minutes or more (what we refer to as a “session”) and besides recording the most number of adult males and green birds you see at your feeder together during that session, you recorded the number of visits Painted Buntings made to your feeder and the duration (i.e., length of time) each bird stayed at the feeder during that visit. You can indicate your session time, number of males and green birds, colorband data (if the birds have bands), and multiple visits and their durations. After you enter these for your session, click submit!

Remember, any and all data you collect is helpful to our study! For detailed instructions on how to use our data collection interface, please see our detailed instructions page

Absolutely! You may or may not have time to give “Timed Sightings” data. That’s OK! A series of “Spot Sightings” or even just one Spot Sighting from your location will be very valuable data!

Also, maybe you do have time to do “sessions” and collect “Timed Sightings”, but not always. Please don’t allow this to inhibit you from submitting “Spot Sightings” anytime during the breeding season. Again, any and all data you collect is helpful to our study!

Past studies using bird feeders have demonstrated the importance of feeders to birds by quantifying a variety of parameters such as: feeding and visit rates, possible feeder dependency, the utility of mark-recapture methods on birds using feeders, and survivorship. It is our goal to collect a similar set of parameters to answer our research questions.

Our data collection methods, “Spot Sightings” and “Timed Sightings” allow for the collection of four main data types: count data, visit frequency data, visit duration data, and site fidelity. To help understand what each of these data types tells the “egg-head scientists”, we have translated each data type into a straightforward question. We hope to answer these questions from the data you collect and submit. The questions are:

• Count data: What is the most number of adult males and green birds you see at your feeder together?
• Visit frequency data: How often do Painted Buntings use my feeder?
• Visit duration data: How much time do Painted Buntings spend feeding at my feeder?
• Site fidelity: Are the same Painted Buntings feeding at my feeder, or are they different birds?

Remember, any and all data you collect is helpful to our study! For detailed instructions on how to use our data collection interface, please see our detailed instructions page

The study area consists of the breeding range of the eastern Painted Bunting in the states of North and South Carolina. This includes a rural-urban landscape as well as a distinct coastal to inland distribution for the species. For example, in North Carolina, Painted Buntings only breed along a thin, constricted area near the coast from the state line with South Carolina, north to approximately Morehead City. In South Carolina, Painted Buntings breed along the coast, but also extend well inland, occupying a variety of mixed agriculture and managed young pine stands. Within this matrix are the urbanized areas of Wilmington and Southport, NC and Columbia and Charleston, SC.

In future years, we hope to extend our monitoring to include Georgia and Florida. I you live in these two states, please create an account and submit data. We welcome all citizen science volunteers from the range of the eastern population of Painted Buntings!

Capturing and marking Painted Buntings with bands allow us to gain knowledge about a variety of life characteristics including site fidelity, dispersal and migration, life-span and survival rate, reproductive success and population growth and the behavior of individual Painted Buntings. We capture Painted Buntings and immediately process them by identifying male or female, feather molt, condition and wear, amount of accumulated fat, and age.

Band Colors

We put four colored bands on each Painted Bunting whereby the color combination is unique to that individual. This allows us and our PBOT observers to identify and distinguish a particular Painted Bunting from all the rest! For example, birds that we banding in 2006 returned to the same feeders and were recorded in observations made by our PBOT citizen science volunteers! Each Painted Bunting receives three pre-determined colors and one silver band with inscribed numbers. This is a federal band from the U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory. For more information about banding, see the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center website.

This year, we will be banding following a pre-determined protocol that will enable us to compare Painted Bunting population demographics among three strata: Coastal North Carolina, Coastal South Carolina, and Inland South Carolina. We hypothesize that habitat change within these landscapes maybe affecting breeding populations of Painted Buntings differently.

Green Bird with Bands

Photo by Jamie Rotenberg

Adult Male with Bands

Photo by Jamie Rotenberg

Banding at Carolina Beach St. Park

Photo by Jamie Rotenberg

Possibly! Last year, 2007, we were fortunate to have a larger budget than this year, and lots of research time that enabled us to band at over 90 locations in the Carolinas! If you were one of the lucky ones, you should watch for the return of your banded Painted Buntings. When you see them again at your feeder, please submit your sightings with the band information!

This year we will need to follow a strict protocol whereby we selected (at random for statistical purposes) specific locations within three strata to do our banding. The Core Painted Bunting Observer Team at PBOT HQ regrets that because we need to strictly follow our new protocol, we will not be able to revisit every location from last year.

Dr. Jamie Rotenberg, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) began the PBOT study with a grass-roots effort during the spring and summer of 2005. Enlisting the help of the Lower Cape Fear Bird Club, a local birding club in Wilmington, North Carolina, Dr. Rotenberg asked club members to count the number of Painted Buntings that visited their feeders, and send him an email. After the arrival of the Painted Buntings that spring, Jamie was receiving sometimes 10-25 emails per week and had about 60 citizen science volunteers. With funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006, Dr. Rotenberg began an expanded PBOT project along with help of colleagues at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Georgia. Since then our partners have increased to include the North Carolina Wildlife Commission and many others (see Partners page). The core Painted Bunting Observer Team consists of:

• Jamie Rotenberg, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW)
• Laurel Barnhill, State Non-game Bird Coordinator, South Carolina Division of Natural Resources
• John Gerwin, Curator of Birds, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
• Lex Glover, Wildlife Technician, South Carolina Division of Natural Resources
• Sarah Green, Avian Technician, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
• Megan Demers-Schaefer, Program Coordinator, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
• Brett Buddin, Web Developer, University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW)

For more information on the core members of this study check out the Bios page