The male Painted Bunting has been coming to our backyard regularly for the past few days.  We see him around 6:00 each evening — his clock is almost as regular as Goldy’s!!

I’ve tried to go out and get better pictures of him, but he’s very skittish.  He tolerates me standing on the back stoop, but I’m not allowed to venture out into the grass.  The little green birds are comfortable in the yard now, and I see them flitting in between bushes constantly.  Not the male.  He comes out to the feeder, eats, then disappears back into hiding.  Just once this afternoon he posed in the grapefruit tree for a few seconds before hopping out onto the feeder…

I confirmed tonight that one of my little green birds is actually a little boy.  You can see the beginnings of blue feathers around his eyes.  I hope he sticks around for a while longer and lets me observe his molt.