Indigo Bunting @ Lake Murray (9/21/20)

With the rash of weird dispersals this fall I decided to spend the morning checking the weedy scrub and waterlogged ditches just N of Lake Murray (along the golf course edge, just S of where Jackson passes through).

I was rewarded with a juvenile male INDIGO BUNTING loosely associating with a few immature/female type Lazulis. This bird stuck out as much bluer than the others when they first flushed; the tail and rump were very blue, and on closer inspection lacked the wingbars and buffy breastband of a Laz, showing scattered faint blue spots on the pale breast and upper belly, and small blue splotches on the head and back. It was otherwise a warm brownish tone with broad buffy margins to the tertials and coverts.

Eitan Altman
San Carlos
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports