LAZULI BUNTING. Passerina amoena (Say)

Field characters.—Decidedly smaller than Junco; tail shorter than body. Sexes different. Male: Head, throat, back, and rump, clear light blue; breast crossed by a bright tawny band; under parts otherwise white; tail and wings blackish brown with a white bar (sometimes a narrower one also) across each wing. Female and young: Dull dark brown above, buffy and white on under surface, without contrasted markings of any sort. Voice: Song of male a rather long, high-pitched hurried utterance, of set character; both sexes give a rather weak call note, tsip.

Occurrence.—Common summer visitant at lower altitudes on both sides of Sierra Nevada most abundant in Upper Sonoran Zone on west slope. Recorded from Snelling east to floor of Yosemite Valley, and to 6 miles east of Coulterville; also at Mono Lake Post Office. In migration, noted east of Sierran crest at Grant Lake, Walker Lake, and near Warren Fork of Leevining Creek. Lives in low growths along ravine bottoms and near streams. Seen in pairs or singly, the male more often than the female.

The Lazuli Bunting is a common summer species in the low growths which line the water courses at the lower altitudes on the west side of the Sierra Nevada. It is found in some numbers at Snelling and on the floor of Yosemite Valley, and is abundant in the foothills of the Upper Sonoran Zone. East of the mountains small numbers occur in the vicinity of Mono Lake.

The male Lazuli Bunting wears a plumage the striking feature of which is the lapis lazuli or sky blue of his head, throat, back, and rump. The female and young are merely dull brown and white, and hence are quite inconspicuous amid the sort of surroundings which the species affects. The Lazuli Bunting is, in structure, obviously a sparrow, but in coloration the male reminds one of the bluebirds. The latter, however, are of larger size, with slender bill, and have no white bar on the wing. They are, too, very different in voice and mannerisms. The male blue grosbeak is a larger bird and of much darker tone of blue than the bunting. It has no buff band across the breast or white on the belly. The female bunting and grosbeak are to be distinguished by the larger size and heavier bill in the latter.

This finch is but a summer visitant to the Yosemite section and is one of the last of the lowland migrant species to arrive on its nesting grounds. None was seen during visits to El Portal and Yosemite Valley on April 29 and 30, 1916, so it had probably not yet arrived in those localities. Our earliest record is for May 12, 1919, when two individuals, male and female, were encountered separately west of Coulterville. These were obviously migrants as the species does not inhabit at nesting time the dry chaparral, such as that in which the two birds in question were seen. In Yosemite Valley a male was seen on May 17, 1919. At Pleasant Valley, in 1915, the species was present on May 19, and was established in considerable numbers there by May 23. East of the mountains, in 1916, the Lazuli Bunting was not encountered until May 23 when a single male was recorded.

The fall departure of this bird takes place in September. One individual was noted at Walker Lake on September 14, 1915, and three at Grant Lake on the same date, while two, singly, were seen near Warren Fork of Leevining Creek (at 9000 feet, the highest station at which we saw it), on September 25, 1915. Mr. Joseph Mailliard states (1918, p. 19) that in Yosemite Valley in 1917 the species became scarce toward the end of September, and that his latest record was made on September 28.

During the nesting season Lazuli Buntings live in low thickets of various kinds, not on wet ground, yet within a hundred yards or so of streams or cañon beds. The males perch at the tops of the taller bushes or the smaller trees to sing, but the females remain closely within the shelter of the vegetation and are far less often seen. At Pleasant Valley, on May 23, 1915, adults to the number of 24 were recorded during a 4-hour census; singing males were spaced about 100 to 200 yards apart along the Merced River and tributary ravines. At Snelling 10 were observed amid blackberries and nettles, during a 3-hour census on May 26, 1915. Four males were noted at El Portal on the morning of May 31, 1915. The song season in Yosemite lasts through July, for a male was heard singing in the Valley on July 24 (1915).

The Lazuli Bunting is one of our most persistent singers. It does not confine its utterances to the morning and early evening hours, but is heard if anything less often at those times than during the warmest part of the day. In our memory the song is associated with the drowsy heat of early afternoon. The song is rather high pitched, like that of the California Yellow Warbler, yet is not nearly so shrill. It is rather set in character. Certain syllables may be added or dropped, but the general theme remains the same, and is uttered over and over again at intervals of about 12 seconds. One of our transcriptions of the song is as follows: see-see-see, sweert, sweert, sweert, zee, see, sweet, zeer, see-see. These notes follow one another with rapidity; it is really with difficulty that any syllabic rendering, such as the one just given, can be made.

The nests of the Lazuli Bunting are usually ensconced in low growths along cañon bottoms in situations near which the adult birds spend most of their time. A nest found in Yosemite Valley on June 7, 1915, was at the edge of a meadow near Rocky Point. It was 18 inches above the ground in the crotch of a small chokecherry growing in a rather sparse stand of the same sort of bush. The nest was rather thick walled, not tightly woven, and its exterior was composed of dried and weathered grass and plant stems of the previous season's growth. A few leaves of the cherry growing on the small branches upon which the nest had been built were incorporated into the surface of the structure. The inner portion of this nest was made of fine rounded grass stems, while the cup was lined with horsehair rather loosely placed. The outside dimensions were, height 3 inches, diameter 4 inches; the cup was about 2 inches across and nearly the same in depth. Within were four pale blue eggs in which incubation had just commenced.

When this nest was approached and the observer was yet about 25 feet away, the female parent left and flitted off through the brush, but she soon reappeared and uttered her weak call note. The male also came to the neighborhood but instead of evincing any concern during the examination of the nest, uttered his song at regular intervals from successive perches in the upper foliage of nearby black oaks.

Another nest, seen at Smith Creek, near Coulterville, on June 5, 1915, was 4 feet above the ground in a mountain lilac (Ceanothus integerrimus). It, too, held four eggs.