Warble
An Indigo Bunting sounds like a small bird saying everything twice: a high, bright, slightly buzzy warble in which each note or phrase is repeated before the next, remembered by birders as fire, fire, where, where, here, here, or sweet-sweet, chew-chew, sweet-sweet. Each song lasts two to four seconds and the couplets tend to step down in pitch. It comes from the top of a dead tree, a fence post or a roadside wire, and the singer often looks black against the sky. The call is a sharp spit or chip.
The birder's mnemonic
“fire, fire, where, where, here, here” Every phrase comes in a pair, so count the doubles: even when the words do not fit, the two-by-two rhythm does.
What the song sounds like
The structure is the whole trick. Most songbirds vary their phrases; the Indigo Bunting doubles them. Listen for two of something, then two of something else, then two more, each pair usually a little lower than the last, delivered quickly and with an excited, buzzy edge. Audubon's description is a rapid, excited warble with each note or phrase given twice; Wikipedia's transcription is sweet-sweet chew-chew sweet-sweet. Once you hear the pairing you cannot unhear it.
Each male has a single complex song of his own, and he uses it hard, singing from exposed high perches, posts and wires through the breeding season to hold a territory and draw a mate. The perch matters for finding him: he favors the top of a dead tree or a utility line, where he is backlit and looks blackish rather than blue, so many people hear the doubled song for years without knowing a blue bird was making it. Only males sing.
The call: a sharp spit
The call is a sharp, dry spit or chip, given by both sexes and most often as an alarm when something comes near the nest, which sits only a foot or three off the ground in a dense shrub. In flight, and especially during night migration, buntings keep in touch with a thin, high, buzzy zeeep. Along a gravel road in Missouri in July, the bird that flushes up from the shoulder with a spit and lands on the fence is very often this one.
When and where you hear it
Indigo Buntings breed from southern Canada to northern Florida and eastern Texas, and west in scattered places as far as southern Nevada. They are birds of the in-between: brushy pastures, old fields growing up to bushes, wood edges, power line cuts and roadsides, anywhere shrubs meet open ground. They arrive in April and May and stay late; in Missouri they are present from April until the start of November, and most pairs raise two broods. Migration peaks in April and May and again in September and October, with a surge in the last ten days of August.
One reason the song is so familiar is the perch: a bunting on a wire or a treetop broadcasts over a whole field, and he does it for weeks. A summer evening in a weedy field is a good time to try the song in Warble, since the doubled phrases are distinctive and the bird repeats them for you.
They migrate at night, often across the Gulf of Mexico, and they steer by the stars. Classic experiments with captive buntings under a planetarium sky showed they orient by the pattern of the northern sky rather than by any single star; remove one star and they cope, take away the stars altogether and they cannot find their way. Winter is spent from southern Florida and central Mexico through the West Indies and Central America to northern South America.
What it looks like
A sparrow-sized bird, four and a half to five and a half inches, with a short conical gray bill. The breeding male is blue all over, deepest and most purplish on the head, and the color depends entirely on the light: turquoise in full sun, dark blue or plain black in shade or against the sky. The wings and tail are black edged with blue. Females and young birds are warm brown, paler below, with faint streaking on the breast, faint buff wing bars and a hint of blue in the tail and shoulder. In fall the male goes blotchy as brown feather edges grow in over the blue. The larger Blue Grosbeak has a huge bill and two brown wing bars; a bluebird has a thin bill and an orange breast.
Birds that sound similar
- ?Lazuli Bunting
The western counterpart's song is also a high, excited series of warbled phrases with the first notes repeated and descending the scale, but the phrases are less distinct, less neatly paired. West of the Plains assume Lazuli; on the Plains and in the Southwest the two overlap and interbreed.
- ?Blue Grosbeak
The Blue Grosbeak's song is a sweet, jumbled, rambling warble without the bunting's two-by-two structure, and its call is a loud metallic klink rather than a thin spit. Same brushy fields, bigger bird, much bigger bill.
American GoldfinchBedford Audubon likens the bunting's song to a goldfinch's, and both are bright and hurried. The goldfinch's is longer and full of twitters, with the bouncing per-chick-o-ree flight call; the bunting's is shorter and paired.
Where the Indigo Bunting card lives
In Warble the same bird can be an easy card in one state and a prized one in another, because each album ranks its birds by how often people really report them there. The Indigo Bunting appears in 32 state albums:
Heard one? Open Warble, tap the green button while it sings, and the Indigo Bunting card flips into your album. Get the app free.Questions people ask
What bird sings fire fire where where here here?
The Indigo Bunting. The mnemonic captures its habit of singing every note or phrase twice in a quick, bright, buzzy song from a treetop, post or wire. The words do not matter; the pairs do. If the singer looks black against the sky, that fits too: a backlit male shows no blue.
Why does the Indigo Bunting look black instead of blue?
Lighting. The male is blue in full sun, where he can look turquoise, but in shade or against a bright sky he appears dark blue or black. He also sings from exposed, high perches where he is usually backlit, so the singing bird is often the darkest thing in view.
Do Indigo Buntings really navigate by the stars?
Yes. They migrate at night, and experiments with buntings under planetarium skies showed they orient by the pattern of the northern sky. Removing individual stars had little effect, but with no stars at all the birds could not orient, so the earth's magnetic field alone is not enough for them.
When do Indigo Buntings arrive and leave?
They arrive in April and May and stay into fall; in Missouri they are present from April to the beginning of November. Southbound migration peaks in September and October, with a burst in the last ten days of August, and they winter from southern Florida and Mexico to northern South America.
Sources
- National Audubon Society, Guide to North American Birds: Indigo Bunting. www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/indigo-bunting
- Wikipedia: Indigo bunting (song, calls, star navigation, range, nesting). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_bunting
- Missouri Department of Conservation, Field Guide: Indigo Bunting. mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/indigo-bunting
- Bedford Audubon Society: Indigo Bunting (the fire, fire, where, where mnemonic). bedfordaudubon.org/indigo-bunting/