Indigo Bunting
(Passerina cyanea)

Overview

Summary

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The Indigo Bunting is commonly found in old fields, shrubby woodland borders and forest edges along the southeastern edge of Canada. The Breeding Bird Survey suggests a large increase in the population since about 1970. However, slight declines in the United States are potentially cause for concern, as habitat loss and degradation may threaten the stability of the population at its northern limit.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe
• Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1993-2012)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

Like many of the brushland songbirds that benefitted from the logging and clearing of forests for farmland and road-building, the Indigo Bunting showed range expansions and increases in abundance during the 20th century (Payne 2006). Though increasing in Canada, it is now declining in some parts of its range across the United States. Threats are thought to include habitat loss from natural succession, reforestation, intensification of agriculture, roadside mowing and urbanization on its breeding grounds, and being captured for food or for use as a cage-bird on its wintering grounds in Central America (Payne 2006).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Payne, R.B. 2006. Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Payne, R.B. 2006. Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)