Painted Bunting

Sometimes I think the universe is just playing a cruel joke on females when I see how beautiful some of the male birds are! This is a male Painted Bunting, one of the prettiest birds on my life list. The males have such bright blue heads, red throats and chests and green backs, where the females are just a plain green… Unfortunately their numbers are declining due to Cowbirds laying their eggs in the Painted Bunting nests and humans capturing them as a cagebird in the tropics where they winter!