Indigo Bunting

Photo by Stan Tekiela

by Stan Tekiela
© NatureSmart

August 15, 2016

Indigo Bunting Nest

Every now and then, I am fortunate that someone will give me a call to say they found something cool in their yard and ask me if I want to photograph it. Recently that very thing happened. It stated with a text message from a homeowner who was clearing the edge of their wooded yard and came across a nest. It was a small nest, low to the ground and they felt bad that they inadvertently exposed the nest by clearing the brush. They took a picture and texted it to me saying they think they found a hummingbird nest.

When I received the text titled hummingbird nest I got excited but the moment I looked at the pic I knew immediately it wasn’t a hummer. Four beautiful white eggs were in the nest. Hummingbirds only have two eggs at the max so it can’t be a hummingbird.

The next day I stopped by and walked across the yard with the homeowner towards the nest. We weren’t 40 feet away when I saw the small nest and a tiny bird that jumped from the nest and dropped right to the ground and disappeared. “Now that is interesting” I thought to myself. I didn’t get a good enough look to see what it was.

About 10 minutes later I had my blind set up at a very respectful distance and I sat and waited for the mystery bird to return. It took only a few minutes and the mother returned and I could clearly see it was an Indigo Bunting. This would be only the second nest I have ever seen of this species in the 30 years I have been a professional wildlife photographer.

This was the begging of an amazing adventure for this Indigo Bunting mother. Over the next two weeks this mother would face many obstacles while trying to raise a family. I came back many times to capture the amazing saga of this bunting.

The first of many obstacles this mother faced was living with predators. The first morning I was there a pair of Cooper’s Hawks were visiting the feeding station just 50 feet behind me. These woodland hawks make a living by eating other small birds. I would watch as the mother Indigo would slip out of the nest to take a break and stealthfully move about the forest floor gathering something to eat for herself before slipping into the nest to incubate. The ever present danger just yards away.

A couple days later the homeowner contacted me again to say something has happened and wanted me to stop by and take a look. Two of the Indigo Bunting eggs were missing and a new, larger spotted egg was in their place. Yes a Brown-headed Cowbird found the newly exposed nest and took out 2 eggs and replaced it with one of their own eggs. Cowbirds are nest parasitic birds and lay their eggs in other birds' nests. Knowing that the Indigo Bunting had already been incubating for nearly 10 days I felt this shouldn’t be too much of a threat.

The very next day the two Indigo Bunting babies hatched which spelled the doom for the cowbird egg since the mother won’t be incubating while she is busy feeding her newly hatched babies. She had dodged another bullet since the cowbird baby most likely would have pushed out the Indigo Bunting babies.

The next time I was there photographing an entire family of Broad-winged Hawks were flying around the yard. Freshly out of the nest the young hawks were all over the yard begging for food from their parents. Another predator challenge for the indigo mother.

The babies grew quickly with mom feeding the babies juicy caterpillars and a wide variety of other insects. I could hear the male Indigo Bunting singing from the tree tops nearby but he never came in to help the mother feed the young. She was doing this all on her own.

On my last visit I set up my blind and settled in to wait. The mother indigo came in to feed the babies a couple large caterpillars. The babies were so big they nearly jumped right out of the nest to grab their meal. Then just like magic one of the babies got on the rim of the nest and fluttered its wings. While the second baby watched the first one climbed up the short sticks holding the nest and flapped it wings and off it flew into the forest. Inspired by its sibling the second baby did the same thing and off they both went into the world, healthy and with an amazing mother to look over them.

It is such a privilege to be witness to the dramas and especially the successes of the natural world. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photographer wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com