Lazuli x Indigo Bunting Hybrid at NBC, 2/8/266

Two weeks ago Tiffany Kirsten's Nature Ninja birding tour found a male Lazuli Bunting at the National Butterfly Center.  I went out there the next day and got distant looks and poor photos of a bluish bunting with white wing bars in the ditch behind the feeding station.  At the time I assumed I was looking at the Lazuli Bunting.  But later examination of the sketchy photos proved it to be hybrid Lazuli x Indigo Bunting.  Then the cold weather hit and I spent some days chasing birds and yesterday I finally went back to the National Butterfly Center to enjoy the warm spring weather and look for butterflies.

After chasing butterflies a while I eventually found myself back in the "ditch" and thinking about buntings.  Last year's summer rain produced a good crop of exotic Guinea grass and wintering buntings enjoy the seeds.  Sure enough the little blue guy with white wing bars shows up again but this time closer and I got OK photos.

Though the males of Indigo Buntings and Lazuli Buntings have different plumages, they are closely related and hybrids from the intersecting ranges of the two taxa are not rare.  Here are typical male Indigo and Lazuli Buntings from South Padre Island.

Hybrids can produce an array of phenotypes depending on dominant traits and whether they are F1 from pure parents or F2 back cross with a pure parent and a hybrid parent or some other combination involving hybrids.  

I would not be surprised if Tiffany's original Lazuli Bunting is still around and I will keep my eyes open for it.