[SBB] Indigo Bunting (interacting with female Bunting)

["Tiwari, Vivek" <[[email protected]]>]

Title: Indigo Bunting (interacting with female Bunting)

Today, 07/08/07, I finally got a chance to make it up to Skyline Ridge OSP. As soon as I pulled into the northern-most parking lot at 9:15AM, the

male INDIGO BUNTING sang from the top of a bush from the middle of the roundabout. Over the next hour it flew about the parking lot, singing from the top

of bushes. Also saw it feeding on the grasses in the roundabout.

Twice when it disappeared from long periods of time, I refound it in the bushes and trees on the slope behind the restroom. (Is that by any chance in

Santa Clara County?)  When it was there, it was mostly silent or did shorter bursts of its song.

At one point when it was in a tree behind the restroom and singing, a small brown bird appeared to flew right at it and then they flew in apparently pursuit and then appeared to lock together and fell into the grass. The male Indigo Bunting appeared to be momentarily dazed, i.e. it stayed still in the grass close to the ground for a couple of seconds and then flew off. When I got a look at the other bird it was FEMALE _Passerina_ bunting. It was hard to stay what this was all about but it was a very dynamic episode. Then a WESTERN SCRUB JAY suddenly appeared there and I was worried about the male Indigo. However it was back in the parking lot singing after a while.

At around 10:30AM when I left it was singing close to the beginning of the Ridge Trail and a female _Passerina_ bunting was moving about in the bushes in close vicinty.

My picture of the singing male with a 300mm lens is at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30419272@N00/

Vivek Tiwari

San Jose

_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
South-Bay-Birds mailing list      ([[email protected]])
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
http://plaidworks.org/mailman/listinfo/south-bay-birds_plaidworks.org