Painted Bunting

How to find it

Start on the Pacific side, in dry country with scrub and thickets. Singing males are the easiest to see, so look for them on exposed perches at the edges of scrub and forest. Be patient and quiet, because the birds are shy. A waterhole in dry country is a good place to wait: a biologist using camera traps in Guanacaste records it only at one of the last puddles of water in the dry season. Abandoned pastures, tall grass and river-edge cane are also worth a slow look.

How to recognise it

The adult male is about 13 cm long. Look for these marks:

A violet-blue head.

A yellowish-green back.

A pinkish-red rump.

Bright red underparts.

A red-pink eye ring.

Females are plain green above and yellowish below, with no streaks. They look greener and more yellow than other seedeaters, a useful clue when no colorful male is around. Immatures resemble the female but are duller and browner above.

What it sounds like

Recording: stevestevens, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Painted Bunting eats seeds, some fruit and insects. It often travels alone or in small groups, for example when visiting waterholes in dry areas. The species is nervous and shy, and singing males are the easiest to see.

In Costa Rica, males may accompany a female as if already paired as early as March.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it uses dense cover in secondary growth with scrub, abandoned pastures, tall grass, or stands of river-edge cane. It is recorded from sea level up to 1350 m in the Central Valley.

It is mainly a bird of the Pacific side, found chiefly in the Tempisque river basin, around the Gulf of Nicoya, and in the Térraba region. A Costa Rican field-guide blurb says it lives on the Pacific slope and pushes over into the western Central Valley.

When to see it

It is present from late October to late March, and one writer says it can be found in thickets and low secondary growth until early April. Birders saw it in early January 2024 in dry habitats near open reservoirs and dry forest patches.

Similar birds

The bright adult male cannot be confused with anything else. Females and immatures are plain green with no streaks, unlike the brownish plumage of other buntings. Do not mix it up with the Mil Colores (Stilpnia larvata), whose name sounds similar but is a different bird.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans know it as Azulillo Sietecolores, also called arcoiris or siete colores, names that refer to the male's many colors. Siete colores means seven colors. Some bird keepers value it for its plumage and keep it as a cage bird.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a migrant (M), and BirdLife International rates the species Least Concern.

Photography tips

Be patient and quiet, because the birds are shy. Look for males singing from exposed perches near forest edges or fields. A waterhole in dry country is a good place to wait in the dry season.