The Story
I photographed this Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) at Hacienda Montecristo near Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. Males take on this plumage only from their second year; before that they look much like the green females. The species breeds in the southern United States and northern Mexico and spends the winter along both coasts of Mexico and through much of Central America, at shrubby forest edges and in dense savanna. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/90 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. Hacienda Montecristo is a regular birding route for COAS Copán, the Santa Rosa de Copán club whose first outing was held there on Global Big Day in May 2017.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) belongs to the family Cardinalidae (Cardinals and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List