27 December 2025

In mid-December an iNaturalist report from a home near Frick Park reported a very rare bird — a painted bunting (Passerina ciris) at a backyard feeder in Squirrel Hill. Birders soon discovered where it was and were welcomed by the homeowner and the next door neighbor, my friend Maren Cooke. Since then more than 110 people have seen this stunningly colorful bird, some as recently as yesterday morning.

Painted buntings are truly rare birds in Pittsburgh and worth a trip to see. Their normal range extends to Kansas and South Carolina in summer but they retreat to Central America and Florida in winter.

Note the winter dot at Virginia Beach, above. Painted buntings are known to wander in fall and winter because they eat seeds and can survive without insects. The purple squares on the eBird map below are painted bunting reports since 2020. Individual birds have shown up as far north as Newfoundland, Canada in the last 5 years.

Many of my friends visited the Painted Bunting Stakeout on 19 December and got stunning photos. Steve Gosser was lucky to capture it in a natural setting with snowflakes. Charity Kheshgi photographed it on the feeder with fellow red birds, male northern cardinals.

By the way, male painted buntings are absolutely gorgeous but don’t expect the females to look like this. The ladies are camouflage green to match the thickets where they nest.

We are lucky that a male showed up.