I am thrilled! I haven't had a bird feeder in years, but my mother was a birder and we always had feeders growing up. In all those years, we never saw any of the buntings. So this year I finally decide to set out a feeder after seeing my first ever indigo bunting sitting in the grass in my yard a few weeks ago. Now, only a week later, I have up to 11! male indigos in my yard at once on a daily basis. At one point last weekend, they were joined by over 100! goldfinches, and I finally hit the birding jackpot---a male/female pair of painted buntings has been coming every day! Ever since seeing the picture of a painted in the Peterson book, it was my birding holy grail to see one. A few days ago I also saw my first Scarlet Tanager. I was absolutely shocked at how insanely bright orange red this bird was. Almost like a flying traffic cone, and it was set off beautifully by the black wings. I sure hope he comes back. It seems like every day I get a new species. Purple finch, cardinal, blue jay, mourning dove, yellow bellied sapsucker, blue grosbeak. My grandmother, who is also an avid birder for decades tells me the next one I should hope for is a Baltimore Oriole. At this rate, it seems quite likely.

Ned stated it well, but to go a bit further, there is no blue pigment in any of the birds you see that appear blue. Like Ned said, the color appears by refraction. The structure of the feathers reflect back the blue light. Here is a link to a page by Cornell that explains feather colors. It's pretty fascinating. Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Lab of Ornithology - color

Great picture!! S/he makes quite the contrast with the Gold Finch! I had an Indigo Bunting, once. It was the same year I had Baltimore Orioles. I haven't had either since. My parents had Indigo Buntings last year. Quite a few of them too! That's what I was going to say about the Bluebirds..go to TN. They were all around us down there, but we didn't live there long enough for me to get them onto our property.

Thanks, and me too..I grew up 5 miles from the ocean in Haiti. We used to have beach parties on New Year, but we're land-locked at the moment. I'm thrilled to be able to swim on Poppy Mnt, only 1 1/2 miles from here, because it's semi-deserted at the moment. DuBois and I used to drive 15 miles to swim in the Licking River or in a deserted pond over the mnt from us where we had to hike through tick-infested brush to reach it. But, speaking of oceans, this year we did skip down to FL for our anniversary over New Year and camped at Ft Desoto Natl Park but it was too cold to swim. But I could take photos of wonderful birds from the car 12-31-08, dock beside Gulf Blvd, preening American Oystercatcher, 4:19 p.m. From 12-30-08, Florida trip This is a link to the first day at Ft Desoto in my photo album. I love Kentucky warblers and other birds, but the ocean TRUMPS ALL (sigh). Slide show button on upper left corner, click F11 key for full screen http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelbro3/123008FloridaTrip#