Last Tuesday I spotted these rather scruffy-looking non-breeding male Indigo Buntings (Passerina cyanea) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. One viewer in a birding forum on Facebook commented, “He won’t get a date looking like that.”
I sort of expected all male Indigo Buntings to have a color that rivals or surpasses that of a male Eastern Bluebird—I had never before encountered the mottled coloration of a non-breeding male. For the sake of comparison, I have included as a final photograph an image that I captured in August 2017 of a breeding male Indigo Bunting on a sunflower. Click this link if you would like to see the final photo in the context of the original posting in which it was one of the featured images.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Hahaha! The dead leaves in your first photo are like a metaphor of death (like a skull in a classic painting) so it’s a very doleful composition! I like the next one with the nice chocolate colour complementing the expected blue – looks surprisingly pretty – and with pleasing tones in the background. It’s nice to see this variation as I’ve only seen photos of the full-on blue male, and maybe of a female but I’ve not seen one like this! Excellent!
I love your first observation about the metaphorical significance of the dead leaves. Wow. So many of the birds and dragonflies that I photograph have multiple variations, based on age, gender, and geographic location, which makes identification difficult at times. In this case, I looked at the shape of the bill and was able to eliminate a number of bird species from consideration and it was by process of elimination that I was able to figure out that the birds were indigo buntings.
I remember, from the very first Star Wars movie, that after Leia had gotten to know a enough about Han to form a firm opinion, after he’d been trying to impressher, she referred to him as a “stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder,” and the only thing to which he had any objection was clear in his reply: “Who’s scruffy-looking?” I hope your non-breeding male didn’t read your post.
Generally I am reluctant to make comments about physical appearance, since I might be resemble that observation at time. I tend to think of myself, though, more in the category of the American Coots that I see from time to time.
Lovely. And thanks for providing a link to where you went.
That center photo is stunning, Mike. I really like that.
Nice Mike! Great images!
I don’t think I have ever seen one in the ‘scruffy’ phase 😳
As a scruffball myself, I rather like the scruffiness of your subject.
Interesting and actually I liked the way he looked, though maybe it was just the great quality of the photo.
I’ll chime in and say I actually kind of like the mottled color. But that’s just me.
Isn’t it wonderful that nature offers so much diverse beauty. It’s up to the beholder to determine how they feel about it.
As for Indigo Buntings (and, for me, most birds), they are gorgeous at all stages of development.
Wonderful post, Mike!
Yep! Not likely to attract a lovely female.