17 February 2025

Jewelry

Tuesday, May 26th, 2020
Lazuli Bunting (and Utah State House), East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 26 May 2020.
Lazuli Bunting (and Utah State House).
Lazuli Bunting (male), East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 26 May 2020.
Lazuli Bunting (male).

They’re everywhere. Singing bright songs from high perches, zipping back and forth overhead, occasionally chasing each other. Making their presence known—or (in the case of females) usually lurking just out of sight.

I’m talking about Lazuli Buntings.

The species was my first lifer after I moved to Salt Lake City last August. I happened to see a male feeding a fledgling. There was no singing going on. For the most part, the birds were laying low. I thought they might be a little uncommon, maybe even rare jewels.

Turns out they’re abundant jewels—at least in these parts. And I gotta say I’m not too unhappy about it.

Grandeur Peak Area List
Beginning at 7:45 a.m., I hiked several hundred feet up a mountain.

1. Rock Pigeon
2. Black-billed Magpie*
3. Northern Flicker (v)
4. American Robin*
5. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
6. Black-capped Chickadee
7. Black-chinned Hummingbird*
8. Lazuli Bunting
9. Spotted Towhee
10. Black-headed Grosbeak
11. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
12. House Finch**
13. Pine Siskin
14. MacGillivray’s Warbler
15. Warbling Vireo
16. Chipping Sparrow
17. Western Tanager (v)
18. Black-throated Gray Warbler
19. Red-breasted Nuthatch (v)
20. Song Sparrow** (v)

Elsewhere

21. Eurasian Collared Dove
22. House Sparrow

Mammals

None

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

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Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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