The Varied Bunting lives mainly in Mexico, in scrub and streamside thickets. Males are reddish violet, while females and young birds are brown; it searches low in dense vegetation for insects.
Adult males are a mosaic of red, crimson, and violet. Females and immatures are brown, and the male's colors can look nearly black in shade.
It forages low in dense vegetation, twitching its tail and wings to flush insects. Nesting usually begins in late May or early June, though some birds wait for summer rains.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.