404 Birds of Colorado 
Lazuli Bunting. Passerina amena. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 599—Colorado Records—Say 23, vol. ii. p: 47; 
Allen 72, p. 150; Aiken 72, p. 201; Trippe 74, p. 171; Henshaw 75, 
p: 300; Minot 80, p. 230; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 191; Drew 85, p. 16; 
Beckham 85, p. 142; Lowe 92, p. 101 ; Cooke 97, pp. 19, 109, 217; 
Keyser 02, p. 154; Henderson 03, p. 236; 09, p. 238; Gilman 07, p. 157; 
Markman 07, p. 157; Warren 08, p. 24; 09, p. 16; Rockwell 08, p. 173. 
Description.—Male—General colour above turquoise blue, washed 
with dusky in the middle of the back ; wings and tail dusky, the middle 
wing-coverts broadly, the greater coverts narrowly tipped with white, 
forming a double wing-bar ; lores black ; sides of the head and throat 
like the back ; chest tawny, paling on the flanks and becoming quite 
white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts; iris brown, upper 
mandible black, lower greyish-blue with u dusky median streak ; legs 
dusky. Length 4-90; wing 2-75; tail 2-12; culmen -40; tarsus -65. 
The female is earthy-brown above, with a slight wash of blueish on 
the rump ; the coverts are tipped with pale buffy and the under-parts 
are dirty-white, with a buffy tinge across the chest. Young birds are 
rather more tawny above and have the blueish tinge on the rump. 
Young males in the second year have the blue of the back clouded 
over with cinnamon-brown. 
Distribution.— Western North America, breeding from British 
Columbia and South Dakota to New Mexico, south in winter to lower 
California and the Valley of Mexico. 
In Colorado this Bunting is a common summer bird on the plains 
and lower foothills up to about 7,000 feet, occasionally ascending to 
9,100 feet, at which elevation it was taken by Prof. C. P. Gillette, July 
7th, 1896, on Little Beaver Creek in Larimer co. It arrives early in 
May—Aiken’s earliest date is the 9th—and breeds towards the end 
of June. Other recorded localities are: near Greeley (Markman), 
Boulder co. (Henderson), Bergin Park (Trippe), Lincoln and El Paso 
cos. (Aiken), Pueblo (Henshaw), and on the west side of the Divide, 
Middle Park (Carter apud Cooke), Glenwood, Meeker and Gunnison 
cos. (Warren), Mesa co. (Rockwell), Fort Lewis (Gilman). 
Habits. —The Lazuli replaces the Indigo bird in the 
west, and has very similar ways ; it frequents open country, 
where there are low bushes and has a weak and not very 
melodious or well sustained song, difficult to distinguish 
from that of the Summer or Mountain Warbler. It 
nests in a low bush, such as a wild-rose or cherry, and 
lays three or four blueish-white eggs, generally unspeckled, 
