From lehmfinn@algorithms.com Wed Mar 04 05:28:19 1998 Concerning the "mystery" bunting photogrpahed in winter in Santa Barbara, California, and posted on Joe Morlan's web page, and analyzed by Michael Patten, I believe this is a bird I saw when I was still living in California. Here are some various thoughts and observations: The bird was found by Shawneen Finnegan and seen by a fair number of folks over its only-two-day stay in January 1993. We all identified it as an Indigo at the time. This constituted about the fifth winter record for Santa Barbara County (two of which involve adult males). There are NO winter records known there for Lazuli Bunting. The bird was photographed by Don Desjardin. The photo on the web page appears a bit yellow-tinted, at least on our computer. I wrote up a description of the bird at the time in my field notes. Here are some salient highlights: "A warm-brown bunting above (slightly paler on back) and on wings, with warm rusty-buff wingbars. Bluish to flight feathers, rump, and tail. Paler face. Warm buff wash across breast. A few dusky broad blurry faint streaks to flank region; not obvious on breast. Tail jerk. Sharp 'pit' call. Probable male." >From the above, I think the bird still largely sounds like an Indigo, and a male at that. But what about the apparent lack of breast streaking in winter? Michael's discussion brings up good points on the Indigo vs. Lazuli vs Varied problem, which does appear to be a much underappreciated one. To my eye, the biggest problem with Indigo and Lazuli is NOT with birds that look like this one, but with dull Indigos: birds that don't show particular warmth to the upperparts, and whose wingbars are fairly thin and definitely more off-whitish than rich buff. Such Indigos are fairly routine in the East. They are not rare. (And, no, I don't think they are Lazulis, either!) So, what I think this means is that some duller Indigos in the West are probably being passed off as Lazulis, although I do not think the opposite is happening much in the East, where Lazuli is a MUCH MUCH rarer vagrant than Indigo is in the far West. Then there is the problem of female and immature hybrid Indigo X Lazuli Buntings. A true nightmare, as I can imagine they looking very close to the dull Indigos I described above. I don't now of anyone who has identified such in the field, only males (as Michael mentions). Paul Lehman