{"id":158717,"date":"2025-10-01T06:18:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T11:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=158717"},"modified":"2025-10-01T06:18:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T11:18:25","slug":"young-indigo-bunting-getting-ready-to-migrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/10\/01\/young-indigo-bunting-getting-ready-to-migrate\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Indigo Bunting Getting Ready To Migrate"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Indigo Bunting perched on a vine \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 1250, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I can tell this is a hatch year Indigo Bunting because of the yellowish, fleshy gape. I\u2019d guess it\u2019s a young female, since I saw other immature buntings of the same age with far more blue feathers that were probably males.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t seen an adult male Indigo Bunting<\/span><\/a> for some time now, so I suspect they\u2019ve already set off on their journey to their overwintering grounds.<\/p>\n

Morning temps have been getting cooler lately, which means I don\u2019t know how much longer the young buntings will hang around. I do know I\u2019ll miss the Indigo Buntings while they\u2019re gone for the winter.<\/p>\n

It has been wonderful to see, hear, and photograph these beautiful buntings again. I missed them while I lived in Utah, having only photographed one vagrant individual when I was there.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019ll have a few more opportunities with Indigo Buntings before they\u2019ve all left on migration. I sure hope so.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158714,"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":[27,13046,13973,13974],"tags":[970,14190,13984,6530,5817,4620,12147,4067,13048,6583,5465,530,13047,4104,11722,4193],"class_list":["post-158717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-indigo-buntings","category-oklahoma","category-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-autumn","tag-bottomland-hardwood-forest","tag-bottomlands","tag-bunting","tag-buntings","tag-fall","tag-fleshy-gape","tag-immature","tag-indigo-bunting","tag-leaves","tag-migrate","tag-migration","tag-passerina-cyanea","tag-perched","tag-vine","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/indigo-bunting-immature-mia-mcpherson-9030.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-FhX","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":158717,"position":0},"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 "Birds"","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, 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"Birds"","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 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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 "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, 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2024","format":false,"excerpt":"There was a surprise visitor at my friend Steve Creek's bird bath yesterday, it was a gorgeous young Painted Bunting that decided to spend some time in his yard.","rel":"","context":"In "Arkansas"","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched young Painted Bunting, Sebastian County, 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, 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