Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LX5 | Nikon FieldScope III | 30XWA | hand-held (no adapter).
This striking species is a winter visitor to Southern Florida. It breeds in coastal northern Florida north to the Carolinas. Two races are currently recognized. This is the darker nominate form. Populations further west are said to be larger and paler. They also have a different molt sequence and a different migration strategy. However there is controversy over the validity of these two subspecies (Thompson 1991).
Based on breeding bird surveys and Christmas Bird Count data, all populations are declining rather steeply (over 4% decline per year), but the cause of these declines is unclear. These birds prefer edge habitat, but they will come to feeding stations in settled areas. The suggestion that the decline is caused by habitat loss seems unconvincing. However, the species is trapped extensively in Mexico and exported for the pet bird trade.
Males, such as this take two years to acquire bright plumage. In their first year, they are usually indistinguishable from the overall greenish females.
References:
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. 2003, January 6. Florida's breeding bird atlas: A collaborative study of Florida's birdlife.
Lowther, Peter E., Scott M. Lanyon and Christopher W. Thompson. 1999. Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: doi:10.2173/bna.398
Thompson, C. W. 1991. Is the Painted Bunting actually two species? Problems determining species limits between allopatric populations. Condor 93:987-1000: [PDF]