The Painted Bunting is a small bird that breeds in the south-central and coastal southeastern United States. It searches for seeds during migration and winter.
Adult males have a blue head, red breast, green back, and yellow belly. Females and immature birds are bright green with a pale eye ring.
The Midwestern breeding population of Painted Buntings moves to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico to molt, then winters in southern Mexico and Central America. Ethan Linck and colleagues analysed museum specimen dates and locations across this range month by month for a full year. Counts were adjusted for collection effort.
Records shifted among regions and months, suggesting broad, roughly circular movement through the nonbreeding range. They were also associated with areas of high plant productivity in satellite vegetation data. The study used museum specimens to infer seasonal movement without tracking individual birds.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Monthly museum records from Mexico and Central America showed seasonal movement in the Midwestern breeding population, with specimen abundance associated with areas of high plant productivity.