Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

The male painted bunting is often described as North America’s most beautiful bird. To be sure, he’s an incredibly colorful creature, seemingly decorated by a child determined to use every crayon in the box, but the female painted bunting is exceptional, too, and one of our continent’s greenest birds, a bold and bright mix of Kelly green, chartreuse, celadon, and pistachio. Speaking of bold, these birds switch from a seeds-only diet to a mix of seeds and insects during breeding season, and they’re known for robbing spiders of their prey; usually, they pluck tasty treats from spiderwebs, but they’ve also been observed flying right through a web to grab a wrapped lunch on the wing.

Unfortunately for the species, their beauty (of both male and female) makes them popular in the illegal bird trade, and many thousands are trapped in Florida, Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. Curiously, while the overall population of painted buntings continues to decline (by about 0.8% annually), some regional populations appear to be growing – this, in spite of continued threats such as habitat loss and the illegal pet trade. Researchers are so far unable to determine what factors are at play.

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.