{"id":129106,"date":"2024-05-29T02:41:05","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T07:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=129106"},"modified":"2024-05-29T06:25:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T11:25:45","slug":"male-painted-bunting-at-tishomingo-nwr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/05\/29\/male-painted-bunting-at-tishomingo-nwr\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Painted Bunting At Tishomingo NWR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I finally took a few photos of a perched male Painted Bunting that I am happy with at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuge\/tishomingo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> two days ago.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-129105 size-full\" title=\"Perched male Painted Bunting at Tishomingo NWR\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031.jpg\" alt=\"Perched male Painted Bunting at Tishomingo NWR, Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, Johnston County, Oklahoma\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Perched male Painted Bunting at Tishomingo NWR &#8211; Nikon D500, f10, 1\/250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Okay, maybe I am only moderately happy with them. I wish the bunting were perched on something not quite so distracting as the bright, dead branches seen in my image.<\/p>\n<p>*For full disclosure, I did remove a bright, out of focus, branch tip at the bottom edge of this image to the right of the bunting&#8217;s tail because I found it distracting.<\/p>\n<p>I have been focusing on getting images of this species since I arrived in Arkansas in April and then Oklahoma after I drove down here. So far, these Painted Buntings have been a little skittish and elusive for me.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing them though? It is a visual delight.<\/p>\n<p>They almost seem surreal. I can verify that these birds are real, living beings.<\/p>\n<p>This wasn&#8217;t the only brightly colored bird I saw that morning. In the same area of the refuge where I photographed this handsome bunting, I found someone&#8217;s escaped budgie. That budgie was bright green and yellow. I wish I could have captured the parakeet, but it didn&#8217;t come close to me at all.<\/p>\n<p>I took more images of this male Painted Bunting, and later on in the day, one that was down on the gravel road exhibiting some kind of mating behavior. When I get a chance to edit those images, I hope to share them here.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, I hope to photograph more gorgeous Painted Buntings in the days to come.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>I will add a gallery for this species when I have time. For now, check out my bird photo galleries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/birds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I finally took a few photos of a perched male Painted Bunting that I am happy with at Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge two days ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,13973,15117,15021],"tags":[4004,13985,13984,6530,5817,4062,15118,15119,4104,165],"class_list":["post-129106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-oklahoma","category-painted-buntings","category-tishomingo-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-adult","tag-bottomland-hardwood-forests","tag-bottomlands","tag-bunting","tag-buntings","tag-male","tag-painted-bunting","tag-passerina-ciris","tag-perched","tag-spring"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-xAm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129348,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/06\/09\/male-indigo-bunting-in-the-shadows\/","url_meta":{"origin":129106,"position":0},"title":"Male Indigo Bunting in the shadows","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the birds I spotted and photographed on my last trip to Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge was this male Indigo Bunting in the shadows of the leaves.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched male Indigo Bunting in the shadows, Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, Johnston County, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/indigo-bunting-shadows-glow-mia-mcpherson-3449.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/indigo-bunting-shadows-glow-mia-mcpherson-3449.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/indigo-bunting-shadows-glow-mia-mcpherson-3449.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/indigo-bunting-shadows-glow-mia-mcpherson-3449.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128229,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/05\/04\/indigo-bunting-male-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":129106,"position":1},"title":"Indigo Bunting Male At Sequoyah NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This image shows a male Indigo Bunting singing on a wild grapevine in the morning. It was taken taken earlier this week at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Indigo Bunting singing on a wild grapevine, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/indigo-bunting-male-sequoyah-grapevine-mia-mcpherson-3892.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/indigo-bunting-male-sequoyah-grapevine-mia-mcpherson-3892.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/indigo-bunting-male-sequoyah-grapevine-mia-mcpherson-3892.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/indigo-bunting-male-sequoyah-grapevine-mia-mcpherson-3892.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":130466,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/07\/12\/female-or-possible-immature-male-indigo-bunting-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":129106,"position":2},"title":"Female Or Possible Immature Male Indigo Bunting At Sequoyah NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge two days ago, I was thrilled to have this female\/immature Indigo Bunting in my viewfinder for a few seconds.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female or possible immature male Indigo Bunting on a log, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/indigo-bunting-female-immature-log-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-0641.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/indigo-bunting-female-immature-log-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-0641.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/indigo-bunting-female-immature-log-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-0641.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/indigo-bunting-female-immature-log-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-0641.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":154802,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/09\/08\/immature-painted-bunting-getting-ready-to-migrate\/","url_meta":{"origin":129106,"position":3},"title":"Immature Painted Bunting Getting Ready To Migrate","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The last, and probably best, bird I saw and photographed yesterday at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge was a molting immature Painted Bunting.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Painted Bunting at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/painted-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-8058.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/painted-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-8058.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/painted-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-8058.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/painted-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-8058.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":113894,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/06\/20\/male-indigo-bunting-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":129106,"position":4},"title":"Male Indigo Bunting at Sequoyah NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm thrilled with the photos I took of a male Indigo Bunting at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma yesterday morning near the Arkansas River.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Indigo Bunting near the Arkansas River, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/indigo-bunting-adult-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-0383.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/indigo-bunting-adult-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-0383.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/indigo-bunting-adult-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-0383.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/indigo-bunting-adult-male-oklahoma-mia-mcpherson-0383.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":158717,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/10\/01\/young-indigo-bunting-getting-ready-to-migrate\/","url_meta":{"origin":129106,"position":5},"title":"Young Indigo Bunting Getting Ready To Migrate","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge late last week, I was thrilled to take photos of this young Indigo Bunting perched in vines in nice light.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Indigo Bunting perched on a vine, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/indigo-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-9030.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/indigo-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-9030.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/indigo-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-9030.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/indigo-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-9030.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}