This is one of the gaudiest colored birds I have ever seen. While there are others more colorful and weird, this one looks like it was painted by someone who wanted a bird with all the colors in the paint-set.
Passerina ciris is also known as the Painted bunting and is in the same family, Cardinale, as the Indigo Bunting.
The rear view of this bird shows it green, red and yellow mantle and epaulets blending into wing feathers that look like what happens when you mixed all the watercolors together when you were in art class.
This species is a migrant in Texas from April until October when they return to Mexico for the winter. This sparrow sized bird and all its close kin like to eat bugs, berries, and seeds. They can be found in the margins of woodland areas while they’re here.
The bird in the photographs is in a willow tree near a lake. I was lucky enough to get these before he flew out of range. This one is another of the many creatures I have only seen in books before this moment.
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