{"id":154802,"date":"2025-09-08T04:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=154802"},"modified":"2025-09-08T06:01:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T11:01:21","slug":"immature-painted-bunting-getting-ready-to-migrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/09\/08\/immature-painted-bunting-getting-ready-to-migrate\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature Painted Bunting Getting Ready To Migrate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last, and probably best, bird I saw and photographed yesterday at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> was a molting immature Painted Bunting.<\/p>\n

\"RoadsideRoadside immature Painted Bunting \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f8, 1\/100, ISO 800, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I was driving towards the refuge entrance slowly and stopped by a tree that had fallen next to the road during one of our summer storms. Movement in the dead leaves caught my eye, then this little bunting appeared from the shadows and landed on a grass stem.<\/p>\n

It seemed as if the young Painted Bunting was checking me out.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Painted Bunting at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f8, 1\/100, ISO 800, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I was certainly checking the bunting out. I quickly noticed the yellow fleshy gape, the messy feathers, and the barely-there tail feathers.<\/p>\n

What a cutie. What a bird.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Painted Bunting with barely a tail \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f8, 1\/100, ISO 800, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t know if this is a young male or a young female Painted Bunting; there isn’t enough information in my images for me to make that determination.<\/p>\n

What I do know is the weather is finally getting cooler, especially in the mornings, and that this immature bunting will soon need to leave on migration. Their feathers really need to be in good condition to make the long journey south.<\/p>\n

I was tickled to have this immature Painted Bunting<\/span><\/a> in my viewfinder yesterday, even with their feathers in molt. Life isn’t always sleek and beautiful; sometimes it is messy and authentic. Real.<\/p>\n

Life is good, and as always, birds make it better and a whole lot more interesting.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Painted Bunting photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last, and probably best, bird I saw and photographed yesterday at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge was a molting immature Painted Bunting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154705,"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":[27,13973,15117,13974],"tags":[14190,13984,6530,5817,16730,4109,4067,2312,2313,15118,15119,4104,5300,2315,6285,4193],"class_list":["post-154802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-oklahoma","category-painted-buntings","category-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-bottomland-hardwood-forest","tag-bottomlands","tag-bunting","tag-buntings","tag-grass-stem","tag-grasses","tag-immature","tag-molt","tag-molting","tag-painted-bunting","tag-passerina-ciris","tag-perched","tag-roadside","tag-summer-3","tag-tail","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/painted-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-8058.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-EgO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130466,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/07\/12\/female-or-possible-immature-male-indigo-bunting-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":154802,"position":0},"title":"Female 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"Birds"","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 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Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/painted-bunting-immature-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-5372.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/painted-bunting-immature-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-5372.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/painted-bunting-immature-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-5372.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/painted-bunting-immature-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-5372.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":154802,"position":3},"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 "Birds"","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, 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It was taken taken earlier this week at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","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":129106,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/05\/29\/male-painted-bunting-at-tishomingo-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":154802,"position":5},"title":"Male Painted Bunting At Tishomingo NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched male Painted Bunting at Tishomingo NWR, Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, Johnston County, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Painted-Bunting-male-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-2031.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\/154802","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=154802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}