{"id":71957,"date":"2020-07-15T06:10:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T12:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=71957"},"modified":"2025-09-09T06:21:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T11:21:33","slug":"male-lazuli-buntings-photographed-in-the-wasatch-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/07\/15\/male-lazuli-buntings-photographed-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Lazuli Buntings Photographed In The Wasatch Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Lazuli Bunting in July \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past week I have had the pleasure of photographing male Lazuli Buntings high in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> in several different settings. The male buntings with their sky blue upperparts and heads, white bellies, and cinnamon colored breasts are a joy to see and they remind me of days when I used to take my young sons with me to look for Indigo Buntings back East. We called it “bunting hunting” and it was so much fun to point the buntings out to my sons and to have them point them out to me.<\/p>\n

Indigo and Lazuli Buntings are closely related and will hybridize where their ranges overlap.<\/p>\n

\"LazuliLazuli Bunting male up close \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday my first opportunity to photograph Lazuli Buntings happened when this male popped into view on some dead branches near a stand of willows by a creek. Even though the setting is cluttered I like how well this brightly colored male bunting stands out.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Lazuli Bunting perched in front of Black Twinberry Honeysuckle \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The second male Lazuli I photographed yesterday morning showed up as he perched in front of a clump of Black Twinberry Honeysuckles. The berries of the honeysuckle have been picked fairly clean by the Gray Catbirds and Cedar Waxwings that I have seen frequently in the area but there may have been a few left behind that this bunting was searching for.<\/p>\n

\"LazuliLazuli Bunting male perched in tall grasses \u2013 Nikon D500, f9, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Later in the morning I spotted a “mural” of buntings feeding on grass seeds next to a creek. In this one small area I would say there was well over a dozen males and females chowing down on the seeds. The Lazuli Buntings were farther away from me than I would have liked but I had fun photographing them as they bounced around on the grass stems in a light breeze.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult male Lazuli Bunting perched in a serviceberry \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week I photographed another male Lazuli Bunting I found perched on top of a serviceberry in the mountains. The serviceberries will be ripening very soon now at which time the buntings will have a juicy feast. I plan on being up there to photograph them.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Over the past week I have had the pleasure of photographing male Lazuli Buntings high in the Wasatch Mountains in several different settings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155008,"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":[27,380,4594,1731,26,773],"tags":[4004,6523,6603,6577,6530,5817,3940,7147,3747,4109,1828,6600,4062,4069,4270,4104,6698,6522],"class_list":["post-71957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-lazuli-buntings","category-morgan-county","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-amelanchier-utahensis","tag-black-twinberry-honeysuckle","tag-branches","tag-bunting","tag-buntings","tag-canyon","tag-creek-side","tag-grass","tag-grasses","tag-lazuli-bunting","tag-lonicera-involucrata","tag-male","tag-mountains","tag-passerina-amoena","tag-perched","tag-serviceberry","tag-utah-serviceberry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lazuli-bunting-male-grasses-mia-mcpherson-4973.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-iIB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53812,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/26\/lazuli-buntings-in-serviceberry-trees-fattening-up-before-migration\/","url_meta":{"origin":71957,"position":0},"title":"Lazuli Buntings In Serviceberry Trees – Fattening Up Before Migration","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past couple of weeks I have been able to photograph male, female and immature Lazuli Buntings as they have been gorging on the fruits of Serviceberry trees to fatten up before their migration.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult male Lazuli Bunting in a Serviceberry, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lazuli-bunting-male-mia-mcpherson-8013.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lazuli-bunting-male-mia-mcpherson-8013.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":"Juvenile Lazuli Bunting perched on a serviceberry, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lazuli-bunting-juvenile-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-5990.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lazuli-bunting-juvenile-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-5990.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lazuli-bunting-juvenile-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-5990.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lazuli-bunting-juvenile-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-5990.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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McPherson","date":"August 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"When I photographed this immature Lazuli Bunting three years ago today these images were eclipsed by me finding a rare Baltimore Oriole in the same area of the Wasatch Mountains.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Lazuli Bunting perched in a serviceberry - Inset showing the fleshy gape, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/lazuli-bunting-immature-gape-mia-mcpherson-inset-7588.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/lazuli-bunting-immature-gape-mia-mcpherson-inset-7588.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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