I’m going to go out on a limb here today and say that Kevin Dunham enjoys a rainbow of birds at his feeders in Munising most days. He starts us out with one you cannot mistake, an Indigo Bunting. The brilliant blue is so distinctive and beautiful. We had one at our feeders last week, but it was only here for a day. The range maps I’ve checked shows that the U.P. is within their breeding range, along with the Eastern and Central U.S., but our area is on the northern fringes of that range. We generally see one or two and then they’re gone. So it’s a real treat when we do spot them.

The rest of Kevin’s rainbow of birds today are the brightly colored Goldfinch. When they start turning bright yellow, we know Spring is here. The Purple Finch is more subdued, but still beautifully colored, more red than purple, but it stands out when it’s on the feeders or in the trees. Kevin’s last bird in the lineup is a White-Crowned Sparrow. The range map for this medium sized sparrow, says that it’s a “passage migrant” in the U.P., which I had to look up and found that it is a migratory bird that stops in a region for a short time to rest and feed while traveling between its breeding grounds and its wintering areas. So its just passing through.

Make sure your volume is turned up for this one from Richard Hoeg, who captured an Indigo Bunting Singing Out. What a beautiful song it sings to let everyone know this is his territory.

Hi
I was fortunate enough to see a Goldfinch and, on
another day, an Indigo Bunting while walking at my
local nature center.

I knew we had Kevin again...he gets such stunning
pictures of our feathered friends!!

Awesome vid...those lil birds sing so beautifully,
and yes, if you catch sight...you've just been
blessed! One or two days of seeing these lil
beauties, and you get to wait another year before
the next sighting!

Beautiful, Beautiful!

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to
turn again to the Earth and in the contemplation of
her beauties to know of wonder and humility.

Rachel Carson

Kevin’s avian photography is AMAZING!!
Think you can almost count every feather.
Nice video too, if you can recall the sweetly paired
notes of their song, it can often lead you to a treetop
view of a singing male Indigo!
Did you know - no bird has any blue pigments in
their feathers? It is the light reflecting off them that
appears blue to our eyes.
Mother Nature is so incredible :)

Beautiful shot, Kevin! We saw plenty of these at our feeders in Red Jacket. We too saw a "bluebird" on our recent trip to Colorado during our 25th wedding anniversary holiday. This is a Western Bluebird just outside Creede, CO.

Hi
Donna, I heartily agree with your quote.

These are so gorgeous. Kevin is so lucky to get to
see and photograph these every single day. Thank
you for sharing. We had the blue bunting for a
couple of days too, and then, gone. I did not know
that about the blue coloring, Cindy. Very
interesting. Thank you. And Donna, your quotes are
always so good.