{"id":175705,"date":"2026-05-08T04:14:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=175705"},"modified":"2026-05-08T04:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:14:31","slug":"female-indigo-bunting-at-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2026\/05\/08\/female-indigo-bunting-at-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Indigo Bunting at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was delighted to photograph this adult female Indigo Bunting yesterday from one of the gravel roads at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult female Indigo Bunting at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge \u2013 Canon R7, f9, 1\/640, ISO 500, +1.0 EV, Canon 100-500mm at 500mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Female Indigo Buntings aren’t as flashy as the indigo blue males, but I think they are very pretty. This one stood out beautifully from the bright blue sky behind her.<\/p>\n

I never saw a female Indigo Bunting the entire time I lived in Utah, only female Lazuli Buntings.<\/p>\n

Right now the male Indigo Buntings at the refuge are busy singing while the females appear to be busy making nests. The females are quite a bit harder to see and find than the males.<\/p>\n

Indigo Buntings prefer habitats that include brushy slopes, pastures, fields grown to scrub, woodland clearings, and forest edges. They feed on seeds, forbs, buds, berries, and insects.<\/p>\n

In my garden in Virginia, these buntings would nest in the Leyland cypress trees I had planted at the back of my yard by the privacy fence. It always enchanted me to see the adult buntings near my raised strawberry and blueberry beds during their breeding season.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the male would sing from the top of the blueberry bushes and give me great views.<\/p>\n

Indigo Buntings<\/span><\/a> are migratory, and I hope to photograph them as often as I can while they are here this year.<\/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":"

I was delighted to photograph this adult female Indigo Bunting yesterday from one of the gravel roads at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175702,"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":[4004,14190,13984,4897,6530,4070,13048,6583,13047,4104,4018,165,4427],"class_list":["post-175705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-indigo-buntings","category-oklahoma","category-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-adult","tag-bottomland-hardwood-forest","tag-bottomlands","tag-branch","tag-bunting","tag-female","tag-indigo-bunting","tag-leaves","tag-passerina-cyanea","tag-perched","tag-sky","tag-spring","tag-tree"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/indigo-bunting-female-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-7810.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-JHX","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":175705,"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, 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":158717,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/10\/01\/young-indigo-bunting-getting-ready-to-migrate\/","url_meta":{"origin":175705,"position":1},"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 "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 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128229,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/05\/04\/indigo-bunting-male-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":175705,"position":2},"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 "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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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":129348,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/06\/09\/male-indigo-bunting-in-the-shadows\/","url_meta":{"origin":175705,"position":4},"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 "Birds"","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, 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